Elon Musk is a great social media troll and the world’s richest person. He likes to poke and provoke, but he also runs businesses that include a lot of hands-on work. He sent a memo to employees at Tesla. Someone leaked the memo (and I expect that someone may not work there much longer, but that’s a pure guess.)
The memo is to the “ExecStaff,” which I assume means executive staff, and states:
Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factor workers.
If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.
Moreover, the “office” must be a main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties, for example behind responsible for Fremont factory human relations, but having your office be in another state.”
When someone tried to call Musk out for the memo on Twitter, he responded with a classic Musk troll-inspired response:
To keep reading, click here: Elon Musk’s 40 Hours in Office Requirement Is Brilliant
Did he really make those typos or is this just made up by someone?
We will see. There’s devs who write the million lines of code in each car. Data people who analyze everything that can be analyzed, accountants supply chain etc etc. I’m going to try to recruit out of there to test Elmo’s brilliance
None of those people sound like executive staff, which is who this is addressed to.
Usually announcements about people changes will go to exec staff because they are the ones managing the change within their teams. I guess I am not clear if the ask is only for exec staff or if for everyone, because his example about HR supporting Fremont doesnt sound like thats just exec staff.
Executive staff will probably not execute if they have to show up while everyone else is at home. But that redirects us from the central point which is that Elmo is a malignant narcissist who will tank billions of dollars just for some attention.
I love your take on this! I’m with Barb on the typos
How can an executive make any reasonable decisions on exactly how a hands-on job performance can occur if they can’t bother to get themselves to be physically present. There are too many people in executive positions who think “monitoring” job performance via keystrokes or camera views is their sole function for that high-paid position and probably the cause of many of the hands-on workers leaving their jobs, because of that disrespect by their supervisors claiming they know better while lounging behind their ivory walls. These executive positions cost more money to the company than the hands-on workers in labor so asking them to work their minimum hours is not asking too much of them. I feel no sympathy for their distress in being required to be in the office (which also probably means at various worksites to check on things).
“This move brilliantly shows that he values the people who do the actual work building cars.”
This policy is likely a good policy. But Elon Musk “valu[ing] the people who do the actual work”? That’s a mighty big stretch.
I can’t stand this racist creep. I’m sick of people quoting him and I’m sick of hearing about him. He’s not that innovative or even smart.
Billionaires should not exist. They only do so thanks to worker exploitation.
Oh brother.
Yeah, my concern here is that Musk has INSANE requirements for his factory workers, and a tendency to push people to work so hard and so long that they run themselves into the ground. Being rather tied in to the space industry, SpaceX is reportedly a NASTY place to work, especially early in your career. I suspect workplace norms in Musk companies are really skewed.
I’m not sure when this post was written, but Elon sent two e-mails: one to his executive staff, and the other to ALL employees of Tesla and SpaceX, essentially saying the same thing– work 40 hours a week in the office, or be let go.
It’s brilliant to have a toxic, racist, unsafe work environment that flaunts state and county laws? Ok.