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Tesla's Chief Executive (CEO) Elon Musk has reportedly issued his company's employees an ultimatum — they must return to the office or risk termination.
According to Reuters, his request was delivered via an email sent on May 31 night.
It appeared to follow and reiterate points from another email that was sent earlier in the day, however, Reuters did not confirm the veracity of this preceding email.
Content of the first email
Both emails were circulated on Twitter.
Musk stated in his first email — titled "Remote work is no longer acceptble (sic) — that those who wished to work remotely needed to be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week.
"Or depart Telsa," wrote Musk.
Elon Musk sent an email about not working from home. Screenshot from Dave Lee's Twitter page.
However, Musk said he would make an exception for "particularly exceptional contributors" who were unable to meet this requirement.
"I will review and approve those exceptions directly," he said.
Musk further stated that the employees he was addressing needed to work from a "main" Tesla office and not a "remote branch office", barring employees from working at an office in a location unrelated to their duties.
Content of the second email
In a second email, confirmed by Reuters to be authentic, Musk further elaborated on his ultimatum.
Elon Musk sent a second email about working from home. Screenshot from Dave Lee's Twitter page.
Titled, "To be super clear", Musk said if employees did not show up to their designated office, it would be taken as a sign that they had resigned.
"The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence," he continued.
"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."
While, Musk acknowledged there were other companies that did not impose such requirements, he questioned their effectiveness.
"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," he added.
Mixed opinions by the public
Online, responses to Musk's emails were mixed.
Twitter user Teja praised the Tesla CEO for his "direct and to the point informal language", while another named Dan Atkinson called Musk's request "pathetic".
Screenshot from Dave Lee's Twitter page.
Screenshot from Dave Lee's Twitter page.
Screenshot from Dave Lee's Twitter page.
Screenshot from Dave Lee's Twitter page.
Musk himself responded to a tweet about one of the leaked emails by saying those who disagreed with his policy "should pretend to work somewhere else".
Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter recently for about U$44 billion (S$60 billion) in April, reported The New York Times.
Twitter has a work-from-home-forever policy, which means that its employees can work from anywhere that they feel productive and creative.
It is still keeping this policy despite Musk's call for Tesla's employees to return to the office.
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Top image via Tesla/YouTube and via Elon Musk's Twitter page.