Elon Musk’s order that Tesla workers return to the office has sparked a Twitter spat with Australian billionaire Scott Farquhar, after the Atlassian CEO suggested he would be happy to poach Musk’s staff for remote working positions.
Tesla chief executive and co-founder, Musk, who is also the richest person in the world, has instructed senior managers at the automotive company that they must work “a minimum of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla.” The order was made public by a leaked email this week. A follow-up email from Mr. Musk to all staff confirmed the direction applied to everyone, not just senior managers.
This drew criticism from worker advocates about potential exposure to the coronavirus. Farquhar on Thursday ridiculed the directive in a series of tweets as being “like something out of the 1950s.” Atlassian’s “work from anywhere” policy was “key for our continued growth,” he stated. Musk fired back by suggesting people “pretend” to work somewhere else.
The exchange is not unusual for Musk, who frequently uses Twitter to make unapologetic pronouncements about sensitive subjects. In Silicon Valley, many tech firms moved to mixed home and office working during the pandemic, while others have set dates for returning to the office only to push them back as new outbreaks have occurred.
Farquhar later tweeted that Musk’s demand that staff return to the office for at least 40 hours a week “feels like something out of the 1950s” and allowing people to choose where and how they want to work had been a successful strategy for Atlassian.
From mid-2020 Atlassian decided employees were no longer required to ever go into the office unless they wanted to. The company later reported the work-from-home option had helped attract talent in a labor market that had tightened during the pandemic due to skilled workers not being able to enter Australia on work visas.
Background
Tesla’s factory in Shanghai has been impacted by the recent Covid lockdowns, forcing numerous shutdowns and dealing a blow to Musk’s production goals. Musk has still praised Tesla’s factory workers in China, saying last month they are willing to work long hours and sometimes, not even leave the factory while blasting American workers as “trying to avoid going to work at all.”
Musk sent an email to Tesla executives on Thursday ordering a hiring freeze, writing that he wants to lay off about 10% of the company workforce because he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy, according to an internal email obtained by Reuters. Tesla’s shares fell 6.3% Friday morning. Atlassian, a software company based in Australia, has worked with Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX.