The Twitter spat between Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and Tesla chief executive Elon Musk over work from home policy has grabbed the attention of executives who are still grappling with their employees’ reluctance to return to the office.

Chris Karagounis, the managing partner of executive recruitment firm Alex Kaar, said his phone “nearly melted” on Thursday because of the number of board members and CEOs texting him to discuss Mr Musk’s memo, which warned Tesla and SpaceX employees would be fired if they did not spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office.