Credits: Social Media
Elon Musk email ends remote for Tesla: ‘Pretend to work somewhere else’
A leaked email from the desk of Tesla CEO Elon Musk went viral today after it called an unequivocal end to remote work. In response to the online furore that followed, the billionaire doubled down, saying employees still wanting to work from home should “pretend to work somewhere else.”
The message is loud and clear: if you want to keep your job at Tesla, log in a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office before even thinking of trying to go remote.
Elon Musk deems remote work ‘unacceptable’ in leaked email
The leaked email was first shared by users on tech aggregator HackerNews and on the now-infamous subreddit r/antiwork and, of course, on Musk’s latest conquest, Twitter.
The text explained what is expected of Tesla employees if they want to keep their jobs: log in 40 hours in the office minimum (with emphasis on the minimum) or else. Any remote work can take place outside of those required hours.
“This is less than we ask of factory workers,” the email went on. This prompted a wave of questions across social media about the treatment of Tesla factory workers how many hours do they put in? According to Fortune’s report from May 2022, about 12 hours a day, six days a week for workers at Tesla’s Shanghai factory.
Allegedly, employees there were forced to sleep on the factory floor between shifts due to a combination of strict work schedules and the government’s closed-loop covid strategy. This system had workers living at the factory full-time and doing 12-hour shifts, six days a week.
However, prior to this, they were working in three 24-hour shifts, seven days a week, according to the same report.
The latest stipulation for Tesla employees goes on to explain that remote work may be considered for “exceptional contributors for who [the alternative] is impossible.” However, those are to be assessed on a case-by-case basis by Musk himself.
You can read the text in full below; it does not mince words.
Musk email: ‘They should pretend to work somewhere else’
As reactions to the leaked email poured in, one commenter asked if Musk had anything to add. The CEO’s response was a decisive doubling-down: those wanting to keep working remotely “should pretend to work somewhere else.”
People blindsided by Tesla’s remote work decision
The general reaction online after the email leaked has been one of general incredulity. Two years after a global pandemic forced companies to make remote work an option for up to 100% of their staff with overall great results Elon Musk’s latest email seems like a step back to many.
Indeed, many studies conducted over the past few years support this: a 16,000-worker study by Stanford, based at a company in China, found a 13% increase in productivity for employees working from home. Another study, from the Society of Human Resource Management, showed that remote work made people more productive even when they were sick.
Additionally, the UK’s Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management, reports in a 2021 metastudy that overall increases in productivity were observed when employees worked from home even part of the time. Reasons cited include removing the stress and time-sink of a daily commute and being able to fit in more tasks per minute due to fewer distractions in an environment workers can better control.
Musk’s latest email also raises alarms for the future of Twitter’s work culture. With remote work shown to curb burn-out and Musk’s work environments famously fostering it (SpaceX is especially bad for that), the future of Twitter employees’ mental health hangs in the balance.
Reactions on Twitter seemed to mostly echo the same line of thought.
