Oh, come on, Elon! Already get on with the 21st century.
In a recent infamous leaked memo, Elon Musk told his Tesla staff, “Anyone who wants to work remotely must stay in the office for at least 40 hours per week (and I mean * minimum *) or Exit Tesla“
Musk continued, “It’s low [what] We ask the factory workers. “Okay, yes, but the white-collar workers aren’t working on the assembly line either.
In a follow-up memo to the entire company, Mask continued, “The office must be where your real co-workers will be, not a remote pseudo office. If you Don’t show, we’ll assume you’ve resigned.“
Oh, and don’t think because you are higher in the company that you will be given a pass. “The older you are, the more visible your presence will be.”
This move is not surprising. Musk is famous for working one hundred hours a week, and he is very demanding.
As Dolly Singh, former head of talent acquisition at SpaceX, puts it, “Diamonds are made under pressure, and Elon Musk is a skilled diamond maker.”
Now, some of the musk things are very good. The combination of his intelligence, hard work and perspective has revolutionized both space travel with SpaceX and electric cars with Tesla.
He will go down in history as Henry Ford or Thomas Edison of this century.
But – and it’s a big but – sometimes he’s wrong.
Studies show that people only do better at home. As estimates vary, productivity increases from 3% to 5%. Nicholas Bloom, a professor at Stanford University and a distant work expert, found that 40% of American working hours are now from home. And more people want to work there. In March, for example, only 20% of job listings were remote on LinkedIn, but they saw more than half the applications.
People obviously don’t want to go back to the office.
A survey by Zapier, a job automation company, found that 32% of respondents said they had already quit a job because they could not work remotely, and 61% said they would quit their job for a completely remote opportunity.
Sorry, Elon, you can lead us to a brighter technological future, but your work ethic seeks to bring us back to the dark past.
He is not alone. Many C-level executives want to return to the office.
Bad milk! Bad!
Is it any wonder that in the latest LinkedIn Workforce Confidence survey, employees’ optimism about their employer’s business outlook has slipped six points for the next six months?
There are many reasons for this fall. Inflation, wage shortages, and a shaky stock market all come to mind.
But another major player is that people don’t want to go back to the office again.
The more the leaders insist, the more the workers become dissatisfied. And in this economy, unhappy workers can always go out the door looking for better – or at least remote – jobs.
Not great resignation – I repeat, no – slow down.
Now, maybe Elon can get away with it with his companies. SpaceX, Starlink, and Tesla create something that excites people.
The engineers I’ve talked to there tell me they work overtime, but they’re thrilled to be able to do something that will make a real difference. They are building the future.
But most of us do not have such a business. Instead, we’re creating a product, providing a service, or connecting companies together. That’s all good, necessary work. But is it enough to persuade employees to come to the office? I doubt it.
I think it would be great if you could keep your employees happy by working from a distance.
It makes them happy, and happy workers are productive workers.
Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.