Tech billionaire and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has deemed work from home as a "moral issue" and that he prefers that his employees be at office, even if that is not for the entire 40 hours in a work week, media reports say.
Musk also hit out at Silicon Valley engineers, referring to them as the “laptop classes living in la-la land." He also mentioned that it was hypocritical to work from home while expecting service employees to continue to show up in person.
The tech billionaire was discussing return-to-office imperatives that have caused significant concern among tech workers in Silicon Valley and across the US. According to reports, many of these Silicon valley employees were promised generous remote work mandates by top executives. Musk has been a strong advocate for return-to-office policies and issued an ultimatum to Tesla employees about it last summer, requiring employees to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.
Silicon Valley “laptop classes” need to get off their “moral high horse” with their “work-from-home bulls***,” the SpaceX and Tesla CEO was quoted as saying in a CNBC interview.
Musk-owned EV maker Tesla was more open to remote work before the Covid-19 pandemic began. However, after the pandemic, Musk took a hard line against remote work; he was also said to be against preventative measures such as mask-wearing.
To recall, last year in June, Musk sent an email to Tesla staffers asking them to return to the office or resign. This became an "opportunity" for tech giants Microsoft and Amazon to "poach" unhappy Tesla employees who were dissatisfied with Musk’s return to office policy. In the email, Musk had told Tesla employees that they "do not have an option" but to return to the office with immediate effect.
Musk also gave an ultimatum to Tesla employees to either return to office or get out, saying they "should pretend to work somewhere else" if they disagree with the company's policy.