Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ordered the EV manufacturer’s staff to return to the office full-time and warned that working remotely is no longer acceptable, according to emails leaked in social media.
“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” he wrote in one of the emails. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
The world’s richest person according to Forbes said factory employees and in-person collaboration was critical for Tesla’s success.
“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,” he wrote. “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.”
Musk added that he would personally review any requests for exemptions from the policy.
The Tesla CEO has criticized remote work before and is also known for spending extended hours in manufacturing plants.
With the purchasing bid to buy Twitter ongoing Musk comments raised the potential for a fresh clash with the social media company. In March, Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal said staff could continue to work from home “forever”.
When asked in Twitter about the policy Musk said people who are unwilling to abide by the new rules can “pretend to work somewhere else”.
