Many Tesla employees are still working at home, despite CEO Elon Musk’s demand in May that all workers return to the office.
According to internal documents, Tesla does not have the resources to house all of its employees for 40 hours a week. According to a CNBC report, there are shortages of office spaces, phones, parking spaces and office materials at the electric carmaker’s offices.
Tesla management planned to bring workers back gradually over the summer, starting with three days a week, but that plan has since been scaled back to two days a week with no immediate plans to expand.
The crowded nature of Tesla offices, according to the report, had some employees retreating to the parking lot to make business-related calls.
In the wake of Mr. Musk’s mandate to return to the office or be fired, absenteeism is up and employee retention is down.
In September, internal documents show, that across Tesla, one-tenth of all employees were absent on any given day.
Mr. Musk has said his company is more productive if all employees are in the office — and he has dismissed working from home as “phoning it in.”
Tesla’s rejection of remote work goes against the grain of many tech companies the firm rubs shoulders with, including Twitter, which Mr. Musk may be forced to purchase later this year.
The social media giant recently offered its employees the opportunity to work from home for as long as they like.
Due to the relatively new nature of remote work in the U.S., analysis of its impact on productivity is somewhat sparse. Yet it remains popular among workers who are looking for more flexibility in the professional job market and shows signs of increasing productivity in some fields.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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