Why Tesla Employees Have Still Not Returned To In-Person Work Despite Musk’s Demands
Despite Elon Musk instituting a strict return-to-office policy at Tesla, employee pushback, logistical challenges, and inadequate facilities have prevented it from being implemented on a company-wide scale.
Elon Musk’s Tesla has been receiving more bad press this week. The electric car tycoon and his other senior executives have been accused of monitoring their employee’s office attendance. He has been on a mission over the past few months to get all employees back working in an office setting, as he disagrees with remote working. They previously were asked to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and various office restrictions.
Strong Opinions From The Tesla CEO
Elon Musk is known for being a colorful character with a definite opinion. He didn’t shy away from expressing his unhappiness with his employee’s present situation. He tweeted in June that “Any Tesla employee who didn’t want to work in the office should pretend to work somewhere else.
Also, in a staff email, Musk was said to state that people need to return to the office or quit, and being in the office less than 40 hours was equivalent to “phoning it in.” Shortly after, the company released that it would cut its staff by 10%.
Some employees claimed that remote workers who did not live within a commutable distance of a Tesla facility were asked to move or resign and had until September 30th. Employees who could not move were reportedly let go. Representatives for Tesla have not responded to any of these claims.
Scanning Employee Badges
This recent information has been expressed by various internal employees familiar with the internal reports of the data received from employees scanning in their badges at entry and exit of the Tesla facilities.
This report contains the number of staff present and not present within the facility on that date, and these two numbers are divided and displayed within a chart. Initially, Tesla had a 3-day week return-to-work mandate and has since changed it to a staggered schedule, but now it seems like the Tech company still isn’t happy with their employee’s work schedule.
No facilities Available for Staff
As Tesla has released this new return-to-work policy, there have been complaints from staff that Tesla’s facilities cannot handle a full mandate of workers in the company offices. It has been told that employees have been struggling with a lack of furniture, parking spots, conference rooms, and even electronic equipment such as charging leads. Tesla reported in 2021 that it employed over 99,000 employees worldwide but will not give an update on that number for 2022.
Tesla’s ground-breaking electric car made history and revolutionized the automotive industry, but all this bad PR for the tech innovators could cause a drop in sales and popularity. Consumers who think that companies who do not treat their employees with kindness and respect may treat them in the same manner, which is not a winning formula for success. Hopefully, Tesla will be able to resolve this issue internally and receive the admiration they deserve for their innovative technology and not all this bad press for mistreating employees.
