The world’s richest man appears to have had it with employees working from home.
Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, waded into the return-to-office debate on Twitter by elaborating on an email he apparently sent on Tuesday to the electric car maker’s executive staff.
Under the subject line “Remote work is no longer acceptble” [sic], Mr Musk wrote that “anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers”.
Mr Musk went on to specify that 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”.
While Mr Musk did not directly address whether the email was authentic, he strongly suggested it was by responding to a follower asking him to address people who think going into work is an antiquated concept. “They should pretend to work somewhere else,” he replied.
It is not the first time Mr Musk’s tough-love treatment of employees has come up.
About two weeks before Mr Musk reached a deal to acquire Twitter, Keith Rabois, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur, tweeted an anecdote that speaks to his friend’s management style. At Space Exploration Technologies, Mr Musk once noticed a group of interns milling around while they queued for coffee.
Mr Musk viewed this as an affront to productivity. According to Mr Rabois, who knows Mr Musk from their days at PayPal Holdings, Mr Musk threatened to fire all the interns if it happened again and had security cameras installed to monitor compliance.
Mr Rabois wrote in April that employees at Twitter — one of the most prominent companies to allow permanent remote work — are “in for a rude awakening”. Mr Musk’s apparent email to Tesla’s executive staff suggests Twitter’s policy will change once he takes over.
The reference to Tesla factory workers is also interesting in light of the situation at the car maker’s plant in Shanghai.
Thousands of staff there have been effectively locked in for months, working 12-hour shifts, six days a week. Until recently, many were sleeping on the factory floor as part of a closed-loop system meant to keep Covid out and cars rolling off the production line.
Workers brought in to bring the factory back up to speed are being shuttled between the plant and their sleeping quarters — either disused factories or an old military camp — with day and night-shift workers sharing beds in makeshift dorms.
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Fifa%20World%20Cup%20Qatar%202022%20
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North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
FORSPOKEN
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Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5