Elon Musk Tells Tesla Staff They Can Work From Home On One Condition

Elon Musk has given Tesla staff an ultimatum, telling them in a newly-leaked letter that they can only work remotely if they put in ‘at least’ 40 hours of office work.

Musk suggested that staff who don’t comply would be fired from the electric car company, of which he is CEO, and even called out one staff member in particular in his email. 

The billionaire entrepreneur also stated that staff had to attend a Tesla office as opposed to a ‘remote branch office’.

Alamy

Musk’s full letter, seen by The Telegraph, read: “Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers.

“If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly. 

“Moreover, the ‘office’ must be a main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to job duties, for example being responsible for Fremont factory human relations, but having your office be in another state.”

Musk signed off his letter: “Thanks, Elon.”

UNILAD has approached Musk’s representative for comment. 

Last month, Musk hit out at US workers, accusing them of ‘trying to avoid going to work at all’.

Comparing the work ethic of Americans to their Chinese counterparts, Musk said that while employees in China will ‘burn the 3am oil’, in the US people are ‘trying to avoid going to work at all’.

Alamy

Speaking to the Financial Times, Musk said of Chinese employee’s work ethic: “They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3am oil.

“They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."

Musk’s comments followed reports that workers at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory were required to sleep overnight at the facility when production picked back up after a three-week hiatus. 

According to Insider, a memo received by staff said each worker would be expected to work 12-hour shifts with one day off. They would also be provided with a sleeping bag and an air mattress.

Musk himself previously revealed he’d slept on the floor of his Tesla factory during the production of the Model 3 car, which he described as ‘hellish’.

Speaking to Bloomberg at the time, he said: “I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company. Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse."

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]