An internal written email, apparently sent by Elon Musk ordering Tesla employees to return to the office or leave, is raising many old people at a time when employees are increasingly looking for flexible work arrangements.
In an email screenshot, shared on Twitter, the richest man in the world warns employees of his electric car company that working remotely is no longer acceptable.
Musk responded to the leaked email on Twitter and said people who think getting into work is outdated “should pretend to work somewhere else.”
Just two days after the order was issued, Reuters reported that Musk had sent an email to executives entitled “Pause all hiring worldwide.” In the email, he said he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and needed to cut about 10 percent of Tesla jobs.
The company and its subsidiaries employ nearly 100,000 people.
Elon has sent this second email to the Tesla team pic.twitter.com/BBGtyZngpu
– @ WholeMarsBlog
The tough focus on the controversial billionaire’s working deals, which once tweeted “the coronavirus panic is stupid,” contrasts sharply with how some other CEOs, especially those in the tech world and startups, they are managing this last phase of work. in a pandemic. New research also suggests that it is something that employees value as much as an increase, and that it could even contribute to diversity in the workplace.
Vancouver businessman Greg Gunn said he will give credit to Musk for being very clear about what he wants from his employees.
“It’s a power movement,” Gunn said. “Tesla has historically been a great place to work and a coveted place to work.”
But he said Musk is finally “approving of an old way of building business.” Finally, he finds the order disappointing.
TARGET | Hybrid work schedules are becoming more common:
Hybrid work is the norm as office workers return
On the streets of downtown Toronto on Monday morning, several workers spoke to CBC as they walked into the office. Although their circumstances are different, they were generally happy to return and hoped that a mix of office life and work from home would be their norm from now on.
Gunn co-founded the Canadian company Commitment in 2019, which has always been totally remote. The professional network, which has no physical headquarters, is an online community where home engineers are paid to find their next professional opportunities.
As someone who is very much in favor of remote jobs, Gunn said the approach allows him to recruit the best people for the job, no matter where they live.
He said it also removes obstacles that may hinder the integration of some people into a physical workspace.
“There’s the subtle politics and social capital that you have to earn in an office that, if you’re a janitor or maybe you have some qualities of neurodiversity, it creates barriers.”
Ontario’s public service is more flexible than Musk
While distance work is impossible or impractical for many fields of work, such as health and education, several sectors offer different options for employees in this latest phase of the pandemic.
Even outside the technology sector, Musk’s approach to enforcing full-time office work is stricter than some more traditional jobs.
The Ontario Public Service, which includes some 60,000 public servants, has so far required staff working remotely to enter the office at least three days a week.
“PAHO remains committed to providing flexibility to employees,” Kyle Richardson, a spokesman for the Ontario Treasury Board Secretariat, said in an email to CBC News.
Some bureaucrats working at Queen’s Park in Toronto, pictured here on June 18, 2021, have more flexible job options than Tesla employees (Chris Young / The Canadian Press)
Canadian insurance company Intact Financial has gone even further, recently launching what it calls a “hybrid world model,” which allows teams to discuss and plan when to work from home and when to work in the office.
Meanwhile, in the highly competitive technology industry, flexible employment arrangements are used as a way to recruit talent.
The video game company Ubisoft Montreal, for example, is now a 100% hybrid job and does not impose minimum office hours.
“Our employees have the option to come as they please or stay home,” Public Relations Director Antoine Leduc-Labelle said in an email to CBC News.
At the video game company Ubisoft Montreal, employees have the option of working from home or entering the office as they please. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press)
AirBnb has taken a similar approach, advertiser that the vast majority of employees will be able to live and work wherever they want, as the pandemic ended up being “the most productive two-year period” in the company’s history.
Brian Chesky, CEO of the online vacation rental platform, said limiting the company’s workforce to people living within a radius of travel would only hurt the talent group.
“Today’s startups have embraced remote work and flexibility, and I think this will become the predominant way we will all work in 10 years. This is where the world is going,” he said in an email. email sent to staff in April.
“This will not work”
Jose Maria Barrero, co-founder of the WFH (Working From Home) Research Project, said his reaction to Musk’s approach was that “this won’t work very well for Tesla.”
He has been polling Americans monthly with other academic researchers since the start of the pandemic to gather information about people’s attitudes toward labor agreements.
Barrero said the data generally suggests that flexible labor agreements are as valuable as a wage increase of about 10 percent for most people. He said the group’s research suggests that women, as well as racial and ethnic minorities, tend to have a higher preference for working from home.
In the technology industry and beyond, many companies offer a variety of hybrid work arrangements ranging from options with a minimum number of days in the office to fully flexible options. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
He added that a single, general approach to working arrangements across a company could not be the best.
Instead, he suggested, it is better for companies to look at the specific work arrangements for each function, based on whether someone works in a factory instead of developing computer code.
“I think companies are asking people to go back to work [in office] full time they ignore it and are basically preparing for employees to say their beacon, ”Barrero said.
It’s hard to put genius back in the bottle
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon directly recognized the new standard its last annual letter to the shareholderin which he wrote “it is clear that working from home will become more permanent in American business.”
Dimon said he expects about 40 percent of his employees will continue to work under a hybrid model with variable flexibility.
Barrero said that for many who work with desk work, things will probably never go back to the way they were before the pandemic.
“It’s very difficult to put the genius back in the bottle,” Barrero said.