Elon Musk has extended his new strict rule for working at Tesla to all staff, warning that if they did not play ball, it would mean they have “resigned.”
Elon Musk appears to have duplicated his edict that Tesla staff must work at least 40 hours in the offices, extending his demand to “everyone” in his company in a new email.
The richest man in the world reached the headlines this week with a leaked email sent to Tesla executives demanding that they return to full-time work or “leave” the company.
Musk, who seems determined to get Tesla out of the mentality of working from home in the Covid era, noted that it was “less than what we ask of factory workers.”
Stream the news you want, whenever you want with Flash. More than 25 news channels in one place. New to Flash? Try 1 month for free. The offer ends on October 31, 2022>
His initial email, sent on Tuesday, was sent to executive staff.
But in a new email, sent to “Everyone” with the subject “To be very clear,” Musk clarified that the 40-hour rule applied to all employees.
“Everyone at Tesla has to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” Musk said in the follow-up email, which was shared online by Twitter user Sam Nissim.
“Also, the office should be where your real colleagues are, not a remote pseudo-office. If you don’t show up, we’ll assume you resigned.”
Musk then explained the importance of visibility in the workplace, noting that if he had “not lived so long in the factory,” “Tesla would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.”
“Of course, there are companies that don’t require it, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It’s been a while,” he said.
“Tesla has created and will manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. That won’t happen by calling it quits.”
Musk’s new rules for Tesla
Under Musk’s new rules for Tesla, workers must spend a minimum of 40 hours a week working from their actual job.
Given that five days of eight-hour shifts add up to 40 hours, that would give few opportunities a week to work remotely.
The original email to executives, which came out on Tuesday, was retweeted by an account called the Whole Mars Catalog, which asked, “Hey Elon, any additional comments for people who think getting into work is outdated?”
“They should pretend they work somewhere else,” Musk replied early in the morning, though he did not directly confirm that the email was genuine.
The United States has some of the most flexible labor laws in the developed world. Most staff can be fired for no reason, the only recourse for the employee would be if they could show that their dismissal was motivated by discrimination, for example, if they let them go because of race, gender, disability or sexuality.
As such, Tesla would be largely allowed to get rid of staff who did not return to work for 40 hours a week.
Musk’s blow to American workers
Last month, Musk took a look at the work ethic of Americans in a discussion at a conference on the future of cars, organized by the British newspaper The Financial Times.
“There are a lot of very talented and hardworking people in China who firmly believe in manufacturing,” he said. FT.
“And not only will they burn the oil at midnight. They’ll burn the oil at 3 in the morning. So they won’t even leave the factory type.
“While in the United States, people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
In April, it emerged that Tesla workers at its Shanghai factory would be sleeping in the factory for several weeks due to the city’s severe blockade.
Workers at the China plant were reportedly given a bed to sleep on and a mattress to sleep on.
It was part of a “closed loop” system designed to isolate staff from the outside world so that production could increase.
Musk has been said to have fallen asleep at the Tesla facility in the past. He was sleeping under the desks and even in the factory itself.
In 2018, he told the Recode Decode podcast that when the Tesla Model 3 car was produced, he worked seven days a week and “slept a few hours, worked a few hours.”
He said he sometimes worked 120 hours. With 168 hours a week, that would leave less than seven hours a day without a watch.
But he did not recommend that the 120-hour weeks be normalized, he said.
“You’ll go a little crazy if you work 120 hours a week,” Musk added.
Read related topics: Elon Musk