Elon Musk to Tesla staff: ‘If you don’t show up, we’ll assume you have resigned’

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has put his foot down when it comes to work-from-home arrangements.

In a series of leaked memos on Twitter, the world’s richest man has allegedly told staff that ‘if you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.’

The email, shared online by Sam Nissim, bears the subject line ‘To be super clear’ and was sent to a list labelled ‘Everyone’ at 10.51pm.

‘Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,’ the business magnate is believed to have written.

‘Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. The more senior you are, the more visible your presence must be.’

This would be Mr Musk’s second email about the scrapping of ‘work from home’ policies, cementing his distaste for remote operations.

For ‘particularly exceptional contributors’, the billionaire said he would review and approve them himself in another email leaked on social media on Tuesday.

Germany’s largest trade union, IG Metall, which is based in the same German state where Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin is located, voiced a harsh reaction.

Birgit Dietze, district leader for IG Metall, said: ‘Whoever does not agree with such one-sided demands and wants to stand against them has the power of unions behind them in Germany, as per law.’

Tesla employs around 4,000 people in Germany and plans to expand to 12,000, so this could serve as a huge blow to the production line.

There are currently no laws enshrining the right to work from home in the country.

Following the Covid pandemic, the labour ministry is drafting policies to increase flexibility for workers.

Many large employers, including automakers, have already embraced such hybrid models.

While Tesla has not officially commented on the leaked emails, Mr Musk answered a question on Twitter from a follower about whether he has a comment to ‘people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept’.

He said: ‘They should pretend to work somewhere else.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Tesla’s European offices for a comment.

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