Elon Musk’s ultimatum to Tesla also contradicts current Twitter policy. (File)
At the request of Elon Musk, Tesla Inc. employees to stop “calling” and return to the office, pushed the richest man in the world into a heated debate about the future of work and again shows that some CEOs remain deaf to the growth of staff flexibility requirements.
“Everyone at Tesla should spend at least 40 hours a week in the office,” Musk said in a statement to electric car makers. This should be where your real colleagues are, not some remote pseudo-office. If you do not show up, we will assume that you have resigned. The taller you are, the more visible your presence should be. ”
But that mandate may not be acceptable to some at Tesla, and it is sure to scare off Twitter Inc. employees Musk is seeking to acquire, who enjoy employment policies everywhere during the pandemic. In today’s hectic job market, with rising wages and the departure of record-breaking workers, Musk’s policies could also cost him some talent.
“Companies that require employees to return to the office are likely to face a number of challenges,” said Brian Crop, head of human resources research at Gartner Inc., a technology consulting firm. “They will either have access to a smaller set of talent, or they will have to pay a compensation bonus to force employees to return.”
More than two of the three so-called knowledge workers – data scientists, engineers, graphic designers – prefer hybrid work, according to an ongoing survey of more than 10,000 workers at the Future Forum. The research consortium is supported by Slack Technologies, a division of Salesforce Inc. that offers a popular workplace communication service.
Empty offices
Only 19% of executives work from the office five days a week, compared to 35% of non-executives, the Future Forum found. Those who work full-time in the office report higher levels of stress and anxiety, and more than half would prefer to work flexibly at least part of the time.
Tesla’s CEO doesn’t have that. In a note returning to the office, Musk said Tesla would have “gone bankrupt a long time ago” if he hadn’t lived so long in the factory – so those on the line could see me working with them. “
He also mocked companies with more flexible workplace policies, saying “when was the last time they sent a great product?” It’s been a while. “
Car manufacturers, along with retailers and other companies with a combination of white-collar workers and front-line workers, are following a thin line when giving flexibility to some employees and not others.
The pandemic showed how dependent society is on the physical presence of blue-collar workers in hospitals, meat processing plants and grocery stores. The idea of white-collar workers entering their homes safely, while lower-paid workers risk their health to show up in person, is an additional source of resentment in the already stratified US economy.
To do it yourself
Musk’s office tenure contrasts with that of some competitors in the automotive industry. Ford Motor Co. in April, it adopted a “flexible hybrid” model in which some paid employees come mainly to work together and otherwise work from home. General Motors Co. there is a “work in the right way” strategy that allows workers to enter remotely instead of coming every day. Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. offers its corporate employees the opportunity to work from home all the time.
Musk’s dismissal from telecommuting, which he dismissed as a “pretense,” illustrates the common belief among bosses that remote workers are not as productive, innovative, or collaborative as those in the office.
The CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. David Solomon called telecommuting “aberration” last year, while Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman expressed disappointment that New Yorkers visited restaurants in the city but avoided their offices.
Research by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and other researchers shows that remote workers are just as productive and usually more satisfied than office workers.
Get it from Twitter
Musk’s ultimatum also runs counter to Twitter’s current policy, which is one of the most well-known technology companies, allowing most employees to work from home all the time.
“If our employees are in a role and situation that allows them to work from home and they want to keep doing it forever, we will make that happen,” Twitter said last year. Half of the world’s workers do so remotely or in a hybrid setting, up from 9 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a global survey of employers by Willis Towers Watson, a risk management and human resources firm.
“The widespread acceptance of these working arrangements during the pandemic has challenged some of the myths that have accompanied remote work over the years, namely that people cannot be productive by working remotely, leading to greater openness and acceptance,” he said. Brad Bell, director of the Center for Advanced Research in Human Resources at Cornell University. At Tesla, however, “obviously this is not true.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated channel.)
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