"If You're Not Coming to the Office, Tesla, Leave" Musk Joins the Pre-Work Battle [Jjinbit]

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has entered the office return war. He warned employees that they must spend at least 40 hours a week in the office and told those unwilling to come to the office to leave Tesla.

According to CNBC and others on the 1st (local time), Musk sent two emails to employees that day, saying, "Remote work is no longer acceptable," and "Anyone who wants to work remotely must come to the office at least 40 hours a week or leave Tesla." He added, "This is less than what we ask of factory workers," and "If there are employees who want special exceptions, I will personally review and approve them."

Musk also said, "Of course, there are companies that do not make such demands, but when was the last time they delivered an incredible new product? It's been quite a while," emphasizing that especially senior employees need to come to the office to show their presence. He mentioned this as the reason why he spends a lot of time at the factory and stressed that if he had not done so, Tesla would have gone bankrupt long ago.

Musk said, "Tesla will produce the most fun and meaningful products on Earth and is actually producing them," adding, "This cannot be done over the phone." He also tweeted, "They have to at least pretend to be working somewhere."

Musk's remarks come amid conflicts between management and employees over office returns at major IT companies. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation movement has continued, making it difficult to secure manpower, and flexible work has become a core element employees want. A representative case is Ian Goodfellow, an executive in charge of machine learning at Apple, who resigned in protest against the introduction of a three-day-a-week office attendance system and moved to Google.

In response, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and others have allowed some remote work, and some IT companies like Airbnb have allowed employees to work from home whenever they want. Some IT companies such as Apple and Uber have pushed for office returns but faced employee backlash and responded by delaying the return schedule.

The internal atmosphere at Twitter, the social networking service (SNS) that Musk is currently trying to acquire, has become unsettled. Although Twitter has returned to the office, in March, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal stated that employees could "work from home forever" if they wanted, so employees are paying attention to the impact Musk's remarks will have on the working environment after the acquisition.

Bloomberg reported that Musk's move contrasts with some in the automotive industry. Ford announced in April that it would introduce a "flexible hybrid work model," allowing a mix of office and remote work. General Motors (GM) also adopted a "work appropriately strategy" by allowing white-collar workers to work remotely rather than coming to the office every day. Mitsubishi Motors North America also offered a full-day remote work option.

Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, estimated in a foreign media interview based on his research on tech workers that "8-9% of Tesla's office employees could quit immediately, and an additional 20% could leave over the next few years seeking flexible work." He also suggested that Musk's remarks could be an invitation to other tech workers aiming to fill the positions of Tesla employees who resign.