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Elon Musk tells Tesla and SpaceX workers to return to the office 40 hours a week

Tesla, which had more than 99,000 employees late last year, moved its headquarters in Austin, Texas, from Palo Alto, California, although it still has a significant production and operational presence in California. SpaceX employs about 12,000 people, Mr Musk said in a recent interview.

Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, said Mr Musk’s directives to employees at SpaceX and Tesla are among the most stringent technology companies. Instead, many technology companies have considered hybrid models in which employees can work from home part-time, he said.

Mr Bloom said he expected SpaceX and Tesla to lose about 10% to 20% of their current workforce and for tenants to try to catch employees by offering jobs with more flexible job opportunities.

Many Tesla and SpaceX employees working in state-of-the-art technology may believe in Mr. Musk, but there are also people “who are involved in more common activities such as IT, finance, human resources and salaries. “Said Mr Bloom. “They may say, ‘I don’t design cars. I pay the salaries of the employees and I can do it elsewhere.

Annie Dean, head of part-time work for Atlassian, an Australian software company, called Mr Musk’s vision “outdated”.

“This way of thinking is regressive and rejects the last two years of working together, first digital work,” said in an email Ms. Dean, who was a former head of telecommuting at Meta, the owner of Facebook.

Mr. Musk has long been known as a demanding boss. Sometimes he tried to set an example of hard work, held meetings late at night, sent emails at any time, and even slept in a Tesla factory to help increase production in 2018.