Elon Musk has spoken out against Tesla employees working remotely from home.
BBC News reports that the new policy was shared in emails that were subsequently leaked to social media on Wednesday (June 1). The 50-year-old billionaire wrote that "remote work is no longer acceptable" and that manufacturing products "will not happen by phoning it in".
However, he did appear to jokingly offer his executive staff the opportunity to WFH under one condition, writing: "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 from Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers."
Musk added: "If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly."
The billionaire also sent a follow-up email to staff, stating that the office must be the main Tesla office and not a "remote pseudo office". He also added that if employees fail to show up in person then "we will assume you have resigned".
When asked about what would happen if employees are unable to accept the rules on Twitter, Musk responded they can "pretend to work somewhere else".
The leaked emails highlight Musk's stance on remote working and how companies are trying to figure out new ways to return to normalcy within the working environment, following more than two years of the pandemic.
Per BBC News, the SpaceX founder once revealed that he rarely takes vacations, saying that "it would kill you" and also slept on the factory floor of the company.
"The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence," he wrote in one of the emails. "That is why I lived in the factory so much - so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt."
The email poses curiosity on whether Musk will bring the same policy to Twitter if his $44 billion takeover bid for the social media platform is successful.
As reported by Forbes, Twitter's chief executive Parag Agrawal said in a note to employees in March: "As we open back up, our approach remains the same. Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work and that includes working from home full-time forever."
"Office every day? That works too. Some days in [the] office, some days from home? Of course," he added.
