Elon Musk Forces Tesla Employees To Return To Work
According to Reuters, an email sent by Tesla to its employees went viral on social media platforms on June 1, local time. The content showed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk demanded that employees must return to the office or leave the company.
"If you don't come, we assume you've quit," Musk wrote, "and the higher the position, the stronger the presence you must have. That's why I often live in the factory, so those on the line can see me working with them."
In addition, Musk used his own experience as an example to emphasize the importance of returning to work: "If I hadn't done that, Tesla would have gone bankrupt."
Two sources confirmed the authenticity of the email to Reuters, but Tesla did not respond to the authenticity of the email.
Although Tesla has moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, its engineering base and a factory are still located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Due to employee resistance and the rampant New Crown virus in the California area, major Silicon Valley tech companies did not mandate employees to come to the office, and now with the lifting of local restrictions on the New Crown outbreak, most employees are being asked to return to their jobs.
This comes after nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said they would consider finding a new job if their employer forced them to return to the office full-time, according to the ADP Research Institute's report "The Workforce 2022: A Global Workforce Perspective. This shows that most employees are used to telecommuting.
A Twitter follower also posted another email that was roughly the same as the first one, but from Musk to executives, asking them to work at least 40 hours a week in the office or "leave Tesla. Musk replied to the tweet, saying, "If they pretend to work, they should pretend to work somewhere else."
In an email to Reuters, Worksafe's executive director Stephen Knight wrote: "Unfortunately, Tesla's disregard for worker safety is well-documented, including their taunting of the county public health department in the early stages of the outbreak."
In addition, Musk's move may cause concern among Twitter employees. According to CNN, Twitter has a system where employees can always work from home if they wish. But Musk's idea is clearly contrary to Twitter's original policy.
It's worth noting that Musk has praised Chinese workers before. on May 11, Musk said in an online conversation hosted by the Financial Times, "China has a lot of very talented, hard-working people who believe strongly in manufacturing. Not only do they stay up late, they work diligently at 3 a.m., and they don't even leave the factory at all. Americans, on the other hand, try not to go to work."
