Elon Musk Demands All Tesla Employees Return to Office: This Is Why He Is Wrong

Elon Musk wants employees to come back into the office. Actually, he's demanding it.

When the pandemic began, the working world as we know it underwent a major shift. An entire work-from-home world was created - it had to be.

Some people had already been working remotely, but, come March of 2020, the rest of the world (in any occupation for which it was even a little possible) soon followed. People who had been spending their lives in the office for 9 to 5 jobs now found themselves able to do those same jobs from the comfort of their homes.

As vaccinations have continued and case numbers have gotten under control, people have been returning to offices - but not everyone. Many businesses have remained remote. Several have adopted a hybrid model. Some go on an employee by employee basis.

However, Elon Musk has no intention of relaxing pre-pandemic office standards. The Tesla CEO sent out an email to all of his employees stating that they were all expected to be in the office a minimum of 40 hours a week.

The email read: 

"Everyone on Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned. The more senior you are, the more visible must be be your presence. That is why I lived in the factory so much- so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. if I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.

"There are of course companies that don't require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It's been a while. 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."  Shortly after, Musk tweeted out, "They should pretend to work somewhere else." 

Let's just set aside the fact that 40 hours a week is supposed to be the standard work week, and Elon Musk just openly admitted to requiring more than that of their factory workers - sounds like a labor law violation to us, but okay.

While the sentiment clearly reflected by Musk in this email - that people are not productive, and are more distracted, when working from home - mirrors that of many Americans, the actual statistics behind the claim are faulty. While the image of work as we know it is easier to qualify when people come in and leave an actual, physical space, the productivity does not necessarily correlate; Multiple studies have actually suggested the reverse.

A study done by Stanford determined that, "working from home increased productivity 13%." This was largely due to fewer breaks and sick days. The same study found that attrition was down by 50%, meaning people were not getting burnt out by their jobs as quickly.

Furthermore, a survey by Connect Solutions showed that 77% of those who worked from home had an increase in productivity - this was split between 30% who were able to do more work in a shorter time frame, and 24% who were able to do more work within the original time frame.

via GIPHY

Jose Maria Barrero of of the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology and Steven J. Davis of Chicago Booth also conducted a survey, to test the productivity of workers through the work from home time. Their hypothesis was that people would be less productive if they were working from home. They surmised:

"We are home working alongside our kids, in unsuitable spaces, with no choice and no in-office days...This will create a productivity disaster for firms."

Yet this hypothesis was disproven by their actual study.

Bloom reflected that "working from home under the pandemic has been far more productive than I or pretty much anyone else predicted." A large factor was the removal of transportation as a daily obligation, time suck, and stressors.

Davis remarked that "three-quarters or more of the productivity gains that we find are coming from a reduction in commuting time."

via GIPHY

With the lack of necessity to commute, people were also able to get more sleep. With more sleep, people had improved brain functionality, and were in a better mood when they started to work. A study that took place before the pandemic began found that, "working from home permits a more comfortable personal sleep schedule...Teleworkers who spend less time commuting may be happier and less tired, and therefore more productive."

(Editor's Note: This is especially true of people with conditions like ADHD - like me! My brain doesn't concieve of time in the normal way, and my sleep schedule is often affected - but since taking over as editor I have found that having that bit of extra flexibility to not commute, and get more sleep when I need it, has done nothing but help me AND my team to work and communicate better. But hey, that's just a literal firsthand account. What do we know compared to the great Elon?)

Even CEO Mark Zuckerberg has lauded the benefits of working from home.

"Working remotely has given me more space for long-term thinking and helped me spend more time with my family, which has made me happier and more productive at work."

Happier employees that have more liberty and freedom to live their days ACTUALLY are better at doing their jobs because they see the sun and their loved ones and actually have time to be a person and aren't burnt out? Groundbreaking.

via GIPHY

Within the past two years, the traditional structure of the American workday has been questioned. While many have a difficult time believing that working from home does not lend itself to distraction, the statistics actually show that people, by and large, are not inclined to be derailed. It just means they are better able to accomplish other things in their lives without being tied to the confines of an office.

But who cares about research, science, statistics, or employee productivity? Elon Musk said back to the office!