Elon Musk doubles down on Tesla working rules with another email

Elon Musk has extended his strict new rule for working at Tesla to all staff, warning if they didn’t play ball, he’ll assume they have “resigned”.

Elon Musk appears to have doubled down on his edict that Tesla staff must work at least 40 hours in offices, extending his demand to “everybody” at his company in a new email.

The world’s richest man made headlines this week with a leaked email sent to Tesla executives that demanded they return to work full time or “depart” the company.

Musk, who appears hellbent on yanking Tesla out of the work-from-home mindset of the Covid era, pointed out that was “less than what we ask of factory workers”.

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Tech billionaire Elon Musk wants Tesla staff back in the office. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

His initial email, sent on Tuesday, was sent to executive staff.

But in a new email, sent to “Everybody” with the subject line “To be super clear”, Musk clarified that the 40-hour rule applied to all employees.

“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” Musk said in the follow-up email, which was shared online by Twitter user Sam Nissim.

“Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assumed you have resigned.”

It applies to everyone. He sent a follow-up. pic.twitter.com/DXJu4u98OR

— Sam Nissim (@SamNissim) June 1, 2022

Musk then explained the importance of visibility in the workplace, pointing out had he not “lived in the factory so much”, “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,” he said.

“Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in.”

Musk’s new rules for Tesla

Under Musk’s new rules for Tesla, workers must spend a minimum of 40 hours a week working from their actual workplace.

Given five days of eight-hour shifts adds up to 40 hours, this would give little opportunity in the week to work remotely.

The original email to executives, which emerged on Tuesday, was retweeted by an account called Whole Mars Catalog, which asked: “Hey Elon, any additional comment to people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept?”

Musk’s Tesla is cracking down on employees who would rather work from home. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

“They should pretend to work somewhere else,” Musk replied early on Wednesday morning, although he didn’t directly confirm the email was authentic.

The US has some of the loosest workplace laws in the developed world. Most staff can be fired for no reason, the only recourse for the employee would be if they could prove their sacking was motivated by discrimination – for example, if they were let go because of their race, gender, disability or sexuality.

As such, Tesla would largely be allowed to rid itself of staff who didn’t come back into work for 40 hours a week.

Musk’s swipe at US workers

Last month, Musk took a swipe at the work ethic of Americans in a discussion at a conference on the future of cars, organised by UK newspaper the Financial Times.

“There’s just a lot of super talented and hardworking people in China that strongly believe in manufacturing,” he told the FT.

“And they won’t just be burning the midnight oil. They’ll be burning the 3am oil. So they won’t even leave the factory type of thing.

“Whereas in America, people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”

In April, it emerged Tesla workers at its Shanghai factory would sleep at the factory for several weeks due to the city’s harsh lockdown.

Musk has railed against what he believes is a poor work ethic in the US. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Workers at the China plant were reportedly given a sleeping bed and mattress to bed down on.

It was part of a “closed loop” system designed to isolate staff from the outside world so production could ramp up.

It’s been claimed that Musk has been seen, in the past, asleep at Tesla facilities. He was snoozing away under desks and even on the factory floor itself.

In 2018, he told the Recode Decode podcast that when the Tesla Model 3 car was being produced he would work seven days a week and “sleep for a few hours, work for a few hours”.

He said that at times he worked 120 hours. With 168 hours in a week, that would leave fewer than seven hours a day off the clock.

But he didn’t recommend 120 hour weeks being normalised, he said.

“You’re gonna go a little bonkers if you work 120 hours a week,” Musk added.