Musk wants his workers to return to the office.
Mr. Musk sent a pair of memos to his employees at both companies to spend more time in the office.
In his email to employees, Mr. Musk told them they had to work 40 hours a week.
The more senior you are, the more visible you must be. If I hadn't done that, it would have gone bankrupt.
Mr. Musk wrote in his memo that anyone who wants to do remote work must be with him. He said that those who did not should depart.
With his twin notes, Mr. Musk waded into the debate over how to bring workers back to the office during the coronaviruses epidemic. Over the past few years, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and many other companies have announced and then delayed return-to-office dates as coronaviruses have complicated plans. Work done from home has become normalized.
The issue has become more complicated as coronaviruses vaccinations have increased. Workers were expected to return to the office. Plans have continued to change. The requirement that employees return to the office in May for at least three days a week was suspended by Apple because of a resurgence of Covid cases. The company recently told its employees that they didn't have to go back to work.
Mr. Musk and his companies did not return calls.
Many employees at both companies were already back to work. During the early days of the Pandemic, the Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters used its exemption as a government contractor to remain open. In a March 2020 email, Mr. Musk told employees that they had a higher risk of dying in a car crash than from coronaviruses.
In May 2020, Mr. Musk attacked local officials in the San Francisco Bay Area for not allowing him to reopen his factory. In defiance of health officials, the factory was reopened even though it was located in Alameda County.
At the end of last year, there were more than 99,000 employees at the company, which moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas. In a recent interview, Mr. Musk said that his company employs 12,000 people.
Mr. Musk is in the process of closing a deal to buy the company. He hasn't said what he expects of employees in the office. Jack Dorsey, then chief executive, told employees in 2020 that they would be allowed to work from home permanently.
Mr. Musk told the employees that if they didn't return to the office, they wouldn't be able to ship a new product.
SpaceX will create and manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company in space.
The reporting was contributed by Cade Metz.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
