Over the past few years, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and many other companies have announced and then delayed return-to-office dates as coronavirus surges have complicated plans, even as remote work became normalised
Elon Musk poses with the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb. 5, 2018. In emails to workers at SpaceX and Tesla, Musk said workers were required to spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office. (Todd Anderson/The New York Times)
Elon Musk is demanding that his workers return to the office. Musk, the world’s richest man, sent a pair of similar memos Tuesday to push his employees at SpaceX, the rocket company he runs, and Tesla, the electric carmaker he leads, to spend time in the office.
In his email to SpaceX employees, Musk told workers they were required to “spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.” Those who did not do so would be fired, he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.
“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” Musk said. “That is why I spent so much time in the factory — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt.”
In his memo to Tesla’s executive staff, which was posted by two pro-Tesla Twitter accounts and which the billionaire appeared to confirm, Musk also wrote that “anyone who wishes to do remote work” must be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week. Those who decline should “depart Tesla,” he added.
With his twin notes, Musk waded directly into a fractious debate over the right way for corporations to bring workers back to the office during the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past few years, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and many other companies have announced and then delayed return-to-office dates as coronavirus surges have complicated plans. Remote work has become normalized.
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