It’s a week after his spat with Elon Musk over Tesla’s edict that staff must work at least 40 hours each week in the office, and Atlassian co- chief executive Scott Farquhar is sifting through job applications.

When Musk’s decree leaked in June, Farquhar tweeted that the news from the electric car maker “feels like something out of the 1950s. Very different approach to what we are taking at Atlassian, and here’s why”. He went on to invite Tesla employees to join his company, a help-wanted post that got a kick along from Musk’s dour reply – to his 98 million Twitter followers – that recessions served a vital economic “cleansing” function.