Elon Musk: All Tesla, SpaceX employees must work 40 hours a week in person or ‘depart’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an email Tuesday ordering the company’s employees to return to the office at least 40 hours per week, according to Electrek.

Electrek reported that Musk’s email states anyone who wishes to continue to work remotely must work in an office at least 40 hours weekly or “depart” Tesla. The email has the subject line “Remote work is no longer acceptable” and is signed by Musk.

The email states Musk will personally consider exceptions for “particularly exceptional contributors” who are unable to meet the requirement, according to Electrek. It states that 40 hours in the office per week is less than what Tesla requests from factory employees.

The email says the office an employee goes to must be a main Tesla office and not a remote office that is unrelated to job responsibilities. Electrek reported that Musk later sent a follow-up email stating the more senior an employee, the more visible their presence must be.

“Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth,” Musk said. “This will not happen by phoning it in.”

In a follow-up email to all employees, Reuters reported, he reiterated this demand — and made his warning even more explicit. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” the email obtained by Reuters reads. “Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in.”

“Moreover, the ‘office’ must be a main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties, for example being responsible for Fremont factory human relations, but having your office be in another state,” he said in the letter leaked by Nissim.

Musk did not confirm the authenticity of either letter. But in response to what one Twitter user dubbed “people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept,” Musk tweeted, “They should pretend to work somewhere else.”