Leaked Tesla Email Claims To Show Elon Musk Giving Work From Home Ultimatum

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has issued an ultimatum to his workers on working from home, according to a leaked email.

In the email, shared by the Whole Mars Catalog EV News Twitter page, Musk said that working from home was no longer acceptable. The email was initially shared by Tesla shareholder Sam Nissim on his Twitter page.

When asked about the email by Whole Mars Catalog regarding whether coming into the office was now a dated concept post-pandemic, the billionaire said "[Those that want to work from home] should pretend to work somewhere else."

"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," Musk said in the email dated May 31.

The email continued to say that there were some exceptions, which he would deal with. Whole Mars Catalog also added in the comment section that the email was delivered to executive staff rather than regular employees.

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

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

Newsweek has contacted Tesla for comment

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become the new normal for many industries. Major companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook allowed employees to work from home throughout 2020.

Now many companies are requiring their employees to return to work on at least a partial basis throughout the week.

A study conducted by FlexJobs last year found that a majority of employees prefer to work from home.

"Fifty-eight percent of workers said they would 'absolutely' look for a new job if they cannot continue remote work in their current role," the organization said. "An additional 31 percent said they aren't sure what they would do, and only 11 percent said that working remotely is not a big deal."

The study found that 65 percent of survey participants said they preferred to work remotely full-time, while 33 percent wanted a hybrid work arrangement and 2 percent wanted to work in the office full-time.

There were several points that employees said were beneficial of working at home, including saving money, not having to commute and being more productive.

While productivity dropping has been a concern for managers moving forward post-pandemic, some studies have argued that it remains equally as high or improves with the ability to work from home.

Video conferencing devices company Owl Labs conducted a study in 2021 focussing on the benefits and drawbacks of remote work.

"[We] surveyed 2,050 full-time workers in the U.S. to learn more about the current state of remote and hybrid work and what lies ahead," its annual report on the state of remote work said.

"We learned that productivity didn't suffer, with 90 percent of respondents that worked from home during the pandemic saying they were as productive or more working remotely when compared to the office. 84 percent of respondents also shared that working remotely after the pandemic would make them happier, with many even willing to take a pay cut."

Elon Musk
Elon Musk arrives for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. Leaked Tesla email claims to show Elon Musk giving work from home ultimatum Angela Weiss/Getty Image

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About the writer


Gerrard Kaonga is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter and is based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on U.S. ... Read more

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