Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sent an email late Tuesday to “Everybody” at his electric-car company, elaborating on an earlier missive to executive staff about the need to be in the office. Employees at numerous companies, used to working from home or hybrid policies, have revolted against “RTO” policies and long commutes.
The new policy was shared in emails that were leaked to social media.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the messages, one of which appeared to be addressed to executives.
People who are unwilling to abide by the new rules can “pretend to work somewhere else” Mr Musk said on Twitter, when asked about the policy.
“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” he wrote in one of the emails. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
The emails said staff should report to work at one of the company’s main offices, “not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties”.
Mr Musk added that he would personally review any requests for exemptions from the policy.
Mr Musk said working in the office full-time was what the company asks of its factory employees and in-person collaboration was critical to the firm’s success.
“There are of course companies that don’t require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It’s been a while,” he said in an email, one of two that was leaked and shared on social media.
“Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in.”
Companies in many industries are wrestling with whether to allow the remote work practices that exploded during the coronavirus pandemic to continue.
Mr Musk is famously hard charging in his own attitude to work. He rarely takes holidays and during a crunch period for Tesla a few years ago, he slept on the factory floor.
“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” he wrote in one of the emails on the remote work policy.
“That is why I lived in the factory so much – so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.”