Elon Musk takes on Atlassian boss Scott Farquhar in Twitter spat

Australia’s fifth richest person called Elon Musk’s work policies ‘something out of the 1950s’, and the Tesla billionaire has returned serve.

Co-CEO of Atlassian Scott Farquhar has tried to woo Tesla employees over to the company via a tweet. Picture: Dan Himbrechts / AAP Image

A war on words has erupted on Twitter between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Australian Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, after Mr Farquhar made a dig at the Tesla CEO’s remote work policy and called it ‘something out of the 1950s’.

A letter from Mr Musk leaked to the public this week, in which he demanded Tesla staff return to the office or ‘pretend to work somewhere else’.

“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” Mr Musk wrote in the email sent on Tuesday night.

“If you don‘t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”

Australian software giant Atlassian has taken the complete opposite approach, allowing its staff to work from anywhere in the world, and Mr Farquhar – who most recently ranked as Australia’s fifth richest person – took the opportunity to try and woo Tesla staff over to his company.

“We‘re setting our sights on growing Atlassian to 25K employees by FY26. Any Tesla employees interested?” He wrote.

News from @elonmusk & @tesla today feels like something out of the 1950s: "Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week". Very different approach to what we are taking at Atlassian and here's why. 🧵 (1/5)

— Scott Farquhar (@scottfarkas) June 2, 2022

Mr Musk hit back, writing “The above set of tweets illustrate why recessions serve a vital economic cleansing function.”

Atlassian’s share price is down about 44 per cent over the last six months, amid a broader rout of software stocks.

The above set of tweets illustrate why recessions serve a vital economic cleansing function

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2022

Everyone eats same food, uses same restrooms, etc – no executive chef or other ivory tower stuff.

There shouldn’t be this workers vs management two-class system. Everyone is a worker.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2022

It’s a far cry from when Mr Musk was Twitter best friends with Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, with a Twitter bet between the pair resulting in the world’s biggest battery, in South Australia.

The spat is representative of competing views between company executives as to when to force workers back in to the office – if at all.

An Atlassian spokeswoman said the company’s careers page has experienced about 500 per cent its usual traffic since the tweet.

“Requiring office attendance is outdated,” Atlassian’s Head of Team Anywhere Annie Dean told The Australian.

Elon Musk, pictured at the 2022 Met Gala in New York, has hit back at Scott Farquhar’s Twitter barb. Picture: Angela Weiss / AFP

“Work is not a place, it can happen anywhere. Companies are sinking an enormous amount of resources and spinning wheels trying to figure out an effective return-to-office strategy instead of putting their time and energy into building for the future. Even the people who do come back into the office are going to have to work with some people not working from an office or working from a different office, so we’re only solving a small sliver of the problem. This mindset is regressive and discounts the last two years of collaborative, digital-first work.

“Companies need to ask themselves – who is this benefiting? It’s time to invest in a future where productivity and collaboration are no longer synonymous with physical location.”

Local start-ups quizzed by The Australian had differing views on the value of remote work.

Aaron Bassin, CEO and co-founder of non-bank lender Bridgit, agreed with Mr Musk and said there’s a firm difference between remote work and physical collaboration between co-workers inside an office.

“We’re building an innovative business that is brand new and fast-growing, and it’s very difficult to do that if you can’t collaborate with colleagues properly,“ Mr Bassin said.

“When you’re a start-up, having the whole team in the office has a very different impact to businesses already established. I’m creating a work culture where people are encouraged to come in and collaborate face-to-face to build strong relationships with each other. We’re also better able to solve problems and move quickly when working this way.

“We’ve been very upfront with people in the hiring process and have had a really positive response from our potential and new hires across the business. We are finding that people are craving and enjoying being together again and working in the same space.”

Ben Lipschitz, CEO and co-founder at FoodByUs, said meanwhile that it was absolutely necessary for people to be back in the office and at FoodByUs had implemented a four day per week policy.

Mr Lipschitz said this is made clear in his company’s recruitment process, and that he was weary of people in the interview process if they said they were leaving their current employer because they want people back in the office.

“The team has no problem with coming in because of the culture they have built and people wanting to be in the same workspace as each other,” the executive said.

“We’re not a big corporate with an ability to go off and work in silos. We’re a fast growing, tech start-up, with a huge emphasis on culture and a customer first mindset.

“As an example, I can’t expect my marketing manager to truly understand our customers’ pain points and feedback without having direct access to members of our product and sales team. Having our people together in the office allows for this flow of information to happen freely and organically.”

Jeanette Cheah, CEO and founder of Melbourne-based edtech company HEX, offers a fully remote, flexible working arrangement and encourages employees to work from anywhere.

The fast-growing team is located all around the world and is content with employees never returning to the office again, Ms Cheah said.