Category Archives: Elon Musk

A group of anonymous SpaceX employees say that founder and CEO Elon Musk's recent behavior reflects badly on the company.

An open letter to company executives was posted in an internal SpaceX Microsoft Teams channel with more than 2,600 employees, the Verge reported (opens in new tab) on Thursday (June 16). The letter asks the founder of SpaceX and Tesla to change his ways.

"Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks," the letter states.

Much of that behavior unfolds on Twitter, which Musk is trying to buy. The billionaire is very active on the platform, sometimes using it to make crude jokes (opens in new tab) or insult people (opens in new tab). In 2018, for example, he implied that a man involved in rescuing Thai boys from a flooded cave is a pedophile (opens in new tab).

"As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company," the letter adds. "It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission or our values."

Elon Musk: Revolutionary private space entrepreneur

It is unclear who wrote the letter, although the document itself claims employees "across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority and technical roles have collaborated on" its authorship, The Verge said. The employees who posted the letter did not respond to requests for comment from that website.

The document suggests three different "action items" to remedy what is happening. These items include SpaceX leadership denouncing "Elon's harmful Twitter behavior," condemning other senior company leaders for similar conduct, and defining "what exactly is intended by SpaceXs 'no-asshole' and 'zero tolerance' policies and enforce them consistently."

Musk, Time Magazine's 2021 person of the year, has also denied an allegation of sexual misconduct concerning his activities with a flight attendant in 2016, a story that was broken by Business Insider (opens in new tab).

And multiple former SpaceX employees recently alleged that the company as a whole doesn't do enough to punish or discourage sexual harassment in the workplace, The Verge reported in another story (opens in new tab).

After Business Insider's sexual harassment story about Musk came out, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell sent a company-wide email (opens in new tab)to employees defending Musk, according to The Verge's story today.

"Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations," Shotwell wrote. "Anyone who knows Elon like I do knows he would never conduct or condone this alleged inappropriate behavior."

SpaceX is engaged in numerous government, military and commercial projects. For example, NASA picked SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle to land astronauts on the moon a few years from now. The agency also awarded SpaceX contracts to fly cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. And the company supplies Starlink satellite-internet service to customers around the world.

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SpaceX employees decry Elon Musk's recent behavior | Space

SpaceX employees recently wrote an open letter criticizing company CEO Elon Musks public behavior, but the letter didnt result in the changes they were hoping for many were promptly fired after its publication.

Futurism reportsthat SpaceX employees recently wrote an open letter that was circulated internally criticizing company CEO Elon Musks public behavior. The employees reportedly accused Musk of failing to fulfill the companys No Asshole, and zero-tolerance sexual harassment policies.

The letter was addressed to SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell and signed by an unknown number of employees. Over 100 comments were included in the letter and many employees reportedly agreed with the points made in the letter.

(Pool/Getty)

The letter states:Elons behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks. As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company.

It continues to state:It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.

The letter makes a number of demands, including asking SpaceX to hold all leadership equally accountable for publicly worrying behavior and clearly define what exactly is intended by SpaceXs no-asshole and zero tolerance policies and enforce them consistently.

The letter seems to be prompted by recent allegations that Musk paid a flight attendant $250,000 after she refused his sexual advances during a private jet flight. In December, another letter from a former SpaceX engineer named Ashley Kosak was made public in which she claimed that shecouldnt stop getting sexually harrassed at the company.

TheNew York Timesnotes that a number of employees were promptly fired for taking part in the letter, surprising given Musks alleged dedication to free speech and diverse opinions.

SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell confirmed to theNYTthat the company investigated and terminated a number of employees involved with the letter. Shotwell stated:

The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views. We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.

In an email to staff, Shotwell stated:Blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable. She added: Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.

Read more at Futurism here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolanor contact via secure email at the addresslucasnolan@protonmail.com

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SpaceX Employees Complain About Elon Musk in Open Letter, Get Fired

Top of the morning. It's Jordan Parker Erb here. Today, Elon Musk is expected to field questions from Twitter employees at a company all-hands meeting so we're taking this opportunity to introduce you to his "streetfighter" of a lawyer.

Let's get to it.

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1. Meet Elon Musk's go-to lawyer. Alex Spiro, a brash 39-year-old litigator, has helped Musk defeat a defamation suit, and has been working behind the scenes for the billionaire as he tries to buy Twitter.

Read our full profile on Musk's polarizing attorney.

In other news:

2. The teen who tracks Elon Musk's jet struck a deal with Mark Cuban. 19-year-old Jack Sweeney agreed to stop monitoring Cuban's flights on Twitter after the billionaire offered him business advice. Read the DMs between the two.

3. New grads are having their dream tech job offers rescinded days before graduation. Several recent graduates told Insider they turned down other lucrative opportunities, or were in the process of moving across the country, before their job offers were taken back. Now, they're left scrambling.

4. Kraken will pay employees who don't agree with the company's values four months' worth of wages to leave. According to The New York Times, employees said CEO Jesse Powell made "hurtful" comments around preferred pronouns and demeaning statements toward women. Here's everything we know so far.

5. Google is betting the future of its products on a new internal AI project. It already lost the battle for machine learning to Meta, insiders say. Now, Google is quietly building out a new machine learning framework, and is hoping to strike gold. What we know about the internal project, called JAX.

6. Amazon is planning to expand into five new countries. Leaked documents show the company despite scaling back its US retail business is planning to launch its online marketplace in new locations across Africa, South America, and Europe. Check out all the countries here.

7. Forget Austin and Miami people are flocking to other up-and-coming tech hubs. With more affordable home prices and emerging tech scenes, cities in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are luring droves of new residents from nearby areas. These are three of the hottest new tech epicenters.

8. Best Buy is putting on a few sales that rival Amazon's Prime Day deals. Prime Day isn't until July, but Best Buy is already running competing sales on TVs, headphones, smartwatches, and more. These are the top tech deals we found.

Odds and ends:

9. Your next trip through Europe could be on a helium-filled airship. The airships, which look similar to a blimp, could carry passengers as soon as 2026 and though they're considerably slower than passenger jets, they're also much greener. Get a look at the helium airships.

10. UPS's new battery-powered cargo cycles have hit the streets. The four-wheeled eQuad electric bikes just made their debut in New York City, where UPS is testing them as a way to navigate congested cities and reduce its carbon footprint. Check out the little delivery cycles.

What we're watching today:

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.

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Tech: Elon Musk's Legal 'Streetfighter'

Private rocket company SpaceX fired at least five employees after it found they had drafted and circulated a letter criticizing founder Elon Musk and urging executives to make the firm's culture more inclusive, two people familiar with the matter said.SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.The New York Times reported on Thursday that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter, citing three employees with knowledge of the situation. It had not detailed the number of employees who had been dismissed.SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and "terminated a number of employees involved" with the letter, the New York Times said.The newspaper said Shotwell's email said employees involved with circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel "uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views."Reuters could not independently confirm that report.Billionaire Musk is pursuing a $44-billion bid for Twitter and has made clear his support of freer controls on speech on the site. On Thursday, he told Twitter employees the platform should allow "pretty outrageous things" as long as the content is not illegal.The SpaceX letter, headed "an open letter to the Executives of SpaceX," seen by Reuters, called Musk a "distraction and embarrassment" to the company he founded.In a list of three demands, it said "SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand," "hold all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone" and "define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior."Musk, also head of electric automaker Tesla Inc., has been in the headlines and featured in late-night comedy monologues in recent months, including over his quest to take over Twitter, his criticism of Democrats and a reported allegation of sexual harassment, which Musk has denied in a Twitter post.The open letter at SpaceX, first reported by The Verge, was drafted by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal "Morale Boosters" group chat that brings together thousands of employees, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named. Musk, also the company's chief engineer, has been viewed as a central figure in many of SpaceX's high-profile successes, such as pioneering the re-use of orbital rocket boosters and bringing back routine human spaceflight from U.S. soil after a nine-year hiatus. Shotwell, who leads much of the company's day-to-day business, has said she will enforce SpaceX's "zero tolerance" standards against employee harassment.Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has played a central role in the U.S. space program, becoming the only company capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from U.S. soil and planning to send humans to the moon for the space agency within the next decade.SpaceX is also one of two companies on which the Pentagon depends to launch into space the bulk of U.S. military and spy satellites.

Private rocket company SpaceX fired at least five employees after it found they had drafted and circulated a letter criticizing founder Elon Musk and urging executives to make the firm's culture more inclusive, two people familiar with the matter said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter, citing three employees with knowledge of the situation. It had not detailed the number of employees who had been dismissed.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and "terminated a number of employees involved" with the letter, the New York Times said.

The newspaper said Shotwell's email said employees involved with circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel "uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views."

Reuters could not independently confirm that report.

Billionaire Musk is pursuing a $44-billion bid for Twitter and has made clear his support of freer controls on speech on the site. On Thursday, he told Twitter employees the platform should allow "pretty outrageous things" as long as the content is not illegal.

The SpaceX letter, headed "an open letter to the Executives of SpaceX," seen by Reuters, called Musk a "distraction and embarrassment" to the company he founded.

In a list of three demands, it said "SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand," "hold all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone" and "define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior."

Musk, also head of electric automaker Tesla Inc., has been in the headlines and featured in late-night comedy monologues in recent months, including over his quest to take over Twitter, his criticism of Democrats and a reported allegation of sexual harassment, which Musk has denied in a Twitter post.

The open letter at SpaceX, first reported by The Verge, was drafted by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal "Morale Boosters" group chat that brings together thousands of employees, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named.

Musk, also the company's chief engineer, has been viewed as a central figure in many of SpaceX's high-profile successes, such as pioneering the re-use of orbital rocket boosters and bringing back routine human spaceflight from U.S. soil after a nine-year hiatus.

Shotwell, who leads much of the company's day-to-day business, has said she will enforce SpaceX's "zero tolerance" standards against employee harassment.

Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has played a central role in the U.S. space program, becoming the only company capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from U.S. soil and planning to send humans to the moon for the space agency within the next decade.

SpaceX is also one of two companies on which the Pentagon depends to launch into space the bulk of U.S. military and spy satellites.

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SpaceX fires at least five for letter criticizing Elon Musk

Elon Musk pauses and looks down as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

In what's been a particularly eventful year for Elon Musk, this was a decidedly rough week.

Tesla's stock, which has lost almost half its value since peaking in November, dropped more than 6% in the last week, as investors continued to sell out of their tech holdings.

There are internal matters at Tesla that aren't helping. This week, they were tied to safety issues with the company's advanced driver-assist systems.

Musk's other big company, SpaceX, fired a group of employees who circulated an internal letter that reportedly denounced the CEO and founder as a "distraction and embarrassment." Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday handed SpaceX's Starship rocket program a long to-do list before it can receive a launch license in Boca Chica, Texas.

Then there's Twitter. Musk agreed to buy the social media company for $44 billion in April, but has since publicly trashed it, raising all sorts of concerns about whether the deal will actually close. On Thursday, Musk spoke to Twitter employees for the first time in a video address that was widely panned, based on messages that showed up on the internal chat board.

Here's what went down in Musk town this week.

The NTSB released this image of a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor electric car that was involved in a fatal accident near Miami that killed two people on Sept. 13, 2021.

NTSB

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday that Tesla vehicles accounted for nearly 70% of reported crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems since last June. Data provided by the U.S. safety agency said the electric cars were involved in 273 of the 392 accidents cited in the report, which included data from 11 automakers.

Still, the NHTSA said the data doesn't have proper context and is only meant as a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends.

"I would advise caution before attempting to draw conclusions based only on the data that we're releasing," NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said during a media event. "In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer."

Tesla Model 3

Courtesy: Tesla

When Musk announced plans in June to cut 10% of Tesla's workforce, the CEO said he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy. For consumers, those concerns are turning into sticker shock.

Teslahiked prices for all car models in the U.S. this week as the auto industry continues to grapple with supply chain issues, inflation and economic uncertainty.

The company increased the price of its Model Y long-range version to $65,990 from $62,990, and raised the performance model by $2,000 to $69,990, according to its website. Electrek said the price of the Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive increased by about $5,000 to $104,990. The Model X Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Long Range went up by $6,000.

Tesla had previously delayed deliveries of some of the long-range models in the U.S.

The FAA on Monday made an environmental decision that resulted in a mix of good and bad news for Musk's SpaceX, and the mammoth Starship rocket the company is developing in Texas.

The regulator issued a list of more than 75 environmental mitigation actions the company must complete before it can move forward with Starship flight tests. Included in the requirements are limitations on noise levels and how often SpaceX can close the public highway near the facility.

After the FAA's decision, Musk said the company will have a Starship prototype rocket "ready to fly" by July. The company is aiming to reach orbit with the vehicle for the first time. But it first requires a launch license from the FAA, and the regulator's required mitigations amount to a significant lift before the company can request one.

The good news for SpaceX is that the FAA has concluded its assessment, and is not requiring a more in-depth review.

Musk's plan to buy Twitter has worried policymakers around the world.

Joe Skipper | Reuters

An unknown number of SpaceX employees wrote and internally circulated a letter that was critical of Musk and his public behavior, describing him as "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment," according to media reports. CNBC reported Friday that at least five employees involved in the letter were fired as a result.

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, in a company-wide email obtained by CNBC, claimed the letter and process to solicit signors "upset many" employees, who she said felt "uncomfortable, intimidated, and bullied."

"We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism," Shotwell wrote. "I am sorry for this distraction. Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time at work to do your best work."

Elon Musk twitter account is seen through Twitter logo in this illustration taken, April 25, 2022.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

With Twitter's stock price trading around $37, well below the $54.20 Musk agreed to pay for the company, investors and employees are justifiably concerned about what the future holds.

Musk's all-hands meeting with Twitter staffers on Thursday seemed like an effort by the potential future owner to establish a sense of trust and transparency with the people who would be working for him.

But reactions on Slack following the meeting indicated employees were still left with questions and concerns, according to a person who saw the messages but asked not to be named as they were intended to be private.

While former CEO Jack Dorsey promised employees the option to work remote permanently, Musk has taken a very different approach with his companies, recently demanding that Tesla and SpaceX workers be in the office at least 40 hours a week.

Musk said on the call that he may not be as strict with Twitter employees, because developing software can more easily be handled from afar while car manufacturing requires physical presence.

But his answer didn't appear to calm concerns. His comments also left some Twitter employees fearing for their jobs, according to the person familiar. In addressing concerns about potential layoffs, Musk said Twitter needs to get into a healthy financial state, but that "anyone who is a significant contributor has nothing to worry about," according to the person.

In response, Twitter employees shared messages and memes toward the end of the meeting riffing on how to brand themselves as exceptional.

CNBC's Michael Wayland contributed to this report.

WATCH: Musk tells Twitter employees he wants at least a billion daily users

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Elon Musk had a bad week - CNBC

Tesla founder Elon Musk said the key to his electric automaker's value is whether it can achieve self-driving technology, adding that the firm would be "worth basically zero" without it.

The billionaire was talking about several software issues for Tesla vehicles that he wanted to fix, such as the in-car web browser, which he said is currently too slow.

"But the overwhelming focus is on solving full self-driving," Musk said in an interview with the YouTube channel "Tesla Owners Silicon Valley," published Tuesday.

"That's essential. It's really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero," he said.

Musk said creating fully autonomous vehicles is vital to Tesla's financial success, and cited an encounter with an unnamed auto investor to explain his belief.

"He said the car companies don't make any money on the new car sales. They make all of their money selling used parts to their existing fleet," Musk said.

"The life of a car, before it hits the junkyard, might be 20 years. Warranty is going to typically run out after four years and there's a bunch of stuff that's not covered under warranty," he said.

"If you've got a steady state fleet it means that 80% of your fleet is not under warranty," he continued. "So you can sell high margin replacement parts for the existing fleet and you can sell your new cars at effectively zero margin. It's like a razor and blades thing."

Musk said this presents a "massive barrier to entry" for new automakers like Tesla, who must charge much more for their cars than their competitors.

To do so, they have to make a product "so compelling" that buyers are willing to pay more for it, he said. According to Musk, Tesla's compelling features are its cars' electric power and self-driving potential.

"That is the only way to it. You have to win on autonomy, and you have to win on electrification," he said.

Musk has been making unfulfilled promises to develop self-driving Teslas since 2015, when he predicted that the technology would hit the roads in three years.

Tesla already has an "Autopilot" feature that allows its cars to automatically adjust their speeds and steer within their lanes, though the function still requires driver supervision.

Its "Full Self-Driving" service, which Tesla owners can buy for a one-time fee of $12,000 or a subscription of $199 per month, allows the car to automatically change lanes, recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and park. But as with the Autopilot feature, full driver attention is still needed in the car.

In 2019, Musk said he was "certain" that by the end of that year, Teslas "will be able to find you in a parking lot, pick you up, take you all the way to your destination without an intervention."

"That is not a question mark," he said at the time.

But with Tesla facing setbacks on its prototype self-driving software, it's unclear when the technology will officially launch. In a 2021 Q4 earnings call held in January, Musk again promisedTeslas would become fully autonomous by the end of the year.

As of Wednesday, Tesla shares are worth $699, down 41% year-to-date from their January peak of $1,200. Tesla's market capitalization is estimated at $724 billion.

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Elon Musk says self-driving tech will make or break the value of Tesla - Business Insider

Is there a glitch in the Twitter matrix?

Rabble-rousing SpaceX boss Elon Musk claimed that something very strange was going down on his Twitter after his older tweets failed to load.

The alleged bug was brought to light Tuesday morning by Tesla superfan Steven Mark Ryan. Hey @elonmusk, twitter is FKING you, the sharp-eyed watchdog wrote. Dear everyone, SCROLL down on @elonmusks tweets & replies and tell me.. DO THEY STOP LOADING????

Ryan even made a Patreon video detailing the alleged digital disappearing act, along with a Twitter poll, in which 80% of respondents claimed that Musks tweets stop loading after a short scroll.

Twitter reps have yet to respond to The Posts request for comment.

Needless to say, the centibillionaire was flummoxed by the purported glitch. Very strange indeed, the 50-year-old Tesla boss tweeted in response to the social media Samaritans warning.

Indeed, after perusing the car magnates Twitter, The Post confirmed at the time of writing that his feed does not display any replies that are older than 17 hours and the earlier tweets only showed up after adjusting the settings to display only public tweets.

Its unclear what caused Musks tweets to disappear into the virtual void, however, Ryan claimed that the incident was deliberate and indicative of Twitters lack of transparency.

Twitter FKs users without consent (theres a word for that, isnt there?) and doesnt tell anyone what theyve done, Ryan fumed in a subsequent tweet. Users have NO RECOURSE and most never even KNOW they were or are still BEING FKd. Not cool.

The Musk ally added in a follow-up post, Hoping soon after this tweet thread is posted this bug is fixed, but Im not counting on it.

The controversy comes after Musk claimed that he will not go through with his $44 billion takeover of Twitter unless the social media platform offers definitive proof that less than 5% of its daily users are spam and bot accounts.

Two weeks ago, the aerospace czar estimated that spambots comprised nearly 20% of Twitters 229 million users a whopping four times more than the figure touted by the company.

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Elon Musk: Something 'very strange' happening to Twitter feed

Elon Musk is demanding that Tesla employees cease remote work or be fired, in two emails sent to staff of the electric car company on Tuesday.

In the emails, which were leaked to electric car news website Electrek, Musk stated that all employees must be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week or depart the company. He also wrote that he will review potential exceptions directly, but only for particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible.

More from Variety

Musk reiterated the statement in a follow-up email, specifying that the office must be a main Tesla office and not an off-shoot location. If you dont show up, we will assume you have resigned, reads the memo. Musk also took digs at similar companies that continue to allow work from home.

There are of course companies that dont require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? Its been a while, he wrote.

Although Musk has not made an official public statement regarding Teslas work from home policy, he appeared to confirm the news on Twitter Wednesday morning. In response to a tweet that said Hey Elonany additional comment to people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept?, Musk replied: They should pretend to work somewhere else.

This isnt the first time Musk has demonstrated a low opinion of work from home protocols. After Apple announced that it delayed a plan to require employees to be in office three days a week due to a COVID resurgence this May, Musk took a swipe at the company by tweeting a lazy dog meme underneath a Bloomberg News story.

Read the full leaked emails below:

First email:

Subject: Remote work is no longer acceptable

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.

Story continues

If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.

Moreover, 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.

Thanks,Elon

Second email:

Subject: To be super clear

Everyone at 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 dont show up, we will assume you have resigned.

The more senior you are, the more visible must 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 dont require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? Its 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.

Thanks,Elon

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Elon Musk Demands Tesla Workers Return to Office in Leaked Emails: If ...

Elon Musk has requested that all Tesla employees stop remote work and come back to the office for 40+ hours per week or they will be let go.

Like every other company, Tesla has allowed remote work for every role where it is possible since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

As the pandemic subsides, those companies have been reevaluating their remote working policies. Many of them have come to the conclusion that workers are just as if not more productive when remote working and have decided to allow workers to continue to work remotely. Others have been incentivizing employees to come back to the office.

Now its Teslas turn, and the company definitely falls under the latter category though perhaps incentives isnt the right word in this case.

CEO Elon Musk sent a series of emails yesterday that basically requests employees come back to the office or be terminated:

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.

The CEO added that there might be some exceptions, but he will review and approve those himself, which is a good way to incentivize people not to ask for exceptions.

In a follow-up email, Musk reminded employees that he set the example by sleeping in the factory:

The more senior you are, the more visible must 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.

Finally, the CEO took a dig at the companies who still allow remote work:

There are of course companies that dont require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? Its been a while.

Here are the emails in full:

First email:

Subject: Remote work is no longer acceptble

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.

If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.

Moreover, 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.

Thanks,Elon

Second email:

Subject: To be super clear

Everyone at 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 dont show up, we will assume you have resigned.

The more senior you are, the more visible must 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 dont require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? Its 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.

Thanks,Elon

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Elon Musk asks all Tesla employees to come back to the office or quit

Young Elon Musk announced that he planned to be a millionaire, his father Errol Musk said. (File)

Elon Musk knows how to dominate a news cycle, but for all the coverage of the world's richest man, the tech billionaire's early life in apartheid-era South Africa remains sketchy.

Amid Elon Musk's roller-coaster pursuit of Twitter, his father Errol Musk told AFP in an interview that he had tried to raise his sons "as South African boys", instilling in them the same discipline he learnt in the military.

"I was a strict father. My word was the law. They learnt from me," the 76-year-old said.

He said that even as a pre-schooler, Elon had set his sights on becoming the wealthiest man alive, crediting that uber-macho "South African boy" upbringing with driving his ambition.

"It's part of the way we lived, the way I lived. We strove to be the best we could," he told AFP in an interview from his home in the quaint oceanside town of Langebaan, 120 kilometres (70 miles) from Cape Town.

"I strove to be the best in the type of business that I was in," the retired engineer and property developer said.

"It's sort of our make-up. So we sort of expect that."

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria on June 28, 1971, to Errol and Maye, a Canadian model and dietitian who grew up in South Africa. He was the oldest of three children, closely followed in age by his brother Kimbal and sister Tosca.

He left South Africa at the height of apartheid to avoid the unpopular army draft.

After his parents' acrimonious divorce, Elon decided to live with his father -- taking an overnight train alone when he moved in.

"I go down to Johannesburg Station and there was this little Elon, beaming face, come up on the train by himself, nine years old," his father recalled. Yet Elon has said on numerous occasions that he had an unhappy childhood.

As an adult, father and son suffered a major split when Errol had a child in 2017 with a stepdaughter four decades his junior.

"Elon thought that was not very good. From my point of view, I take life as it comes," the elder Musk said. But he says their relationship has since improved.

"We care about each other," Errol said.

- 'Typically Elon' -

Errol says his son has always been unusual -- long before his controversial outbursts on Twitter.

As a child, Elon spoke without a filter, played pranks and often joined adult conversations, he recalled.

"Even as young as four years old, he would tend to sit with adult people," said Errol.

He recounted one occasion when "one man said to him, 'Hey little chap, why don't you join the kids and run around?' And he'd say, 'No, I prefer to listen to you'."

When young Elon announced that he planned to be a millionaire, his father remembered, another adult scoffed at the boy. He remembered "this man laughing, holding his drink and cigarette and saying, 'When you grow up you'll see. It's not like that... you're going to be disappointed'."

Elon responded, "'Well, I think you're stupid'," said Errol.

"That's typically Elon," said the father.

He also recalled a time when Elon made a hurtful comment to a schoolmate about his father's suicide. The boy pushed Elon down a staircase at school, injuring him so badly he had to be hospitalised. When he heard what had happened, Errol wanted to defend his son.

"But I realised Elon overstepped the mark with this little boy. I had to drop it," he said. After that incident, Errol moved Elon to the prestigious Pretoria Boys High School.

One of the school's ex-headmasters confirmed to AFP that Elon had donated one million rand ($64,500, 60,000 euros) to his alma mater.

- 'Very caring' -

The donation was organised through Musk's assistant. That's also how his father communicates with him.

During the interview with AFP, Errol received what he said was an email from Elon offering to pay for recent eye surgery.

"Elon is a very caring person. He really means it when he says that he wants to save humanity. This is not a slogan or some sort of pitch. This is real."

Errol recalls his 70th birthday as another example of Elon's generosity.

"I'm a South African man. I'm not concerned about my birthday. But it was very nice," said Errol.

Unbeknown to him, Elon had invited a bunch of his celebrity friends, including Hollywood stars. During the lunch, they discussed his support for former US president Donald Trump.

"They all had a good laugh at that, and how could I be so stupid as to support Trump?"

That was his last physical interaction with his son, six years ago. They rarely speak on the phone -- something he says is not unusual.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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