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What Elon Musk got wrong (and right) about forcing employees back into the office.
Whether it’s to stay close to friends and loved ones, to stay in a more exciting city away from where the company is located, or to have the flexibility of not always being an office, work from home has been an extremely popular choice for many workers for a list of reasons.
Many companies (such as Meta) are proud to offer a flexible work from home policy. Tesla CEO Elon Musk doesn’t agree.
So we’re on the same page, here’s the email:
From: Elon Musk
Subject: To be super clear
Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.
The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence. 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. 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.
Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and…