Tesla’s WFH policy presents a challenge for Elon Musk

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called working from home the “morally wrong thing.”
• Musk says he works seven days a week and only takes two or three days off a year.
• He imposed a strict office policy at Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, but there were exceptions.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk called working from home “morally wrong.” Here’s why he’s not a fan of remote work.

Elon Musk has been very critical of working from home and, starting in the summer of 2022, has told executives that they must return to Tesla’s headquarters and offices or resign.

That same summer, Tesla layoffs affected about 10 percent of the company.

The billionaire said exceptions to the new policy could be made for “particularly exceptional contributors” but he would have to approve it himself.

Tesla has indeed made exceptions. In August 2024, Tesla’s career page advertised at least one remote job: a senior project engineer. The position required a bachelor’s degree in an engineering field – or equivalent experience – as well as five to 10 years of relevant experience as an electrical or project engineer.

The reported salary for the job ranged from $79,200 to $270,000, depending on factors such as experience and skills.

Still, the vast majority of the hundreds of jobs listed on Tesla’s website are for in-person positions — many of them at Tesla’s Gigafactories in Fremont, California; Sparks, Nevada; or Austin, Texas. Musk stressed the importance of factory workers — who have been asked to work throughout the pandemic — being able to see senior staff working alongside them.

“It’s like, are you really going to work from home and make everybody else who made your car come into (the) factory?” Musk said in a May 2023 interview. “Can’t the people who make your food that’s delivered work from home? Can’t the people who fix your house work from home?”

Musk said remote work was as much a “moral issue” as it was a productivity one.

The Tesla WFH Challenge

Nick Gallimore, director of innovation at Advanced People Management, said Musk would need “some kind of miracle if he expects people to stick with him … let alone be more productive.”

“Musk’s comments — that remote work simply cannot be as efficient or as productive as working in a physical location — place him in a small minority of business owners who are betting the future of their organizations on the organizational design principles of the past,” he said.

Gallimore, who provides HR consultancy, added: “The odds are stacked against him: many different studies suggest that only 10% of people want to work from the office full-time.”

Nicole Penn, president of an advertising and marketing agency called EGC Group, told Insider, “Every employee has environments that either increase or decrease their productivity. If Tesla’s culture is built on collaboration and factory-born ideas, it’s not possible for a remote team member to connect to that effectively.”

Penn believes the inflexibility of full-time office work is “outdated” and excluding any remote or hybrid workers excludes potential high-performing candidates. “You have to wonder if Elon will retain the top talent that needs and appreciates more flexibility,” she added.