Tesla: Cutting Jobs and Teleworking

upstart writes in with two related stories:

Elon Musk's back-to-office edict reignites debate on remote work:

Elon Musk, CEO of the electric vehicle maker, created a stir this week with emails to employees in which he said he wants them working at least 40 hours a week in the company's offices. Those who seek an exception to that policy will need approval from Musk himself - or they'll just be fired, he suggested.

[...] "Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week," Musk wrote. "Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."

"Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth," he added. "This will not happen by phoning it in."

Musk's stance goes against much of the thinking throughout the tech industry, where companies have been slow to put any demands on workers around when or if they return or how much time they need to spend in physical offices. Workers who were sent home at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have gained critical leverage over the past two years as companies are doing what it takes to appease sought-after tech talent and win recruiting battles.

After remote-work ultimatum, Musk reveals plan to cut 10% of Tesla jobs:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to cut 10 percent of jobs at the electric carmaker because he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy, he wrote in an email to executives, according to Reuters.

Musk sent the message on Thursday with the subject line "pause all hiring worldwide," according to the report. Musk "did not elaborate on the reasons for his 'super bad feeling' about the economic outlook in the brief email seen by Reuters," the news organization wrote.

[...] Tesla reported $18.8 billion in revenue in Q1 2022, a year-over-year increase of 81 percent. Net income was $3.3 billion, a 658 percent year-over-year increase. Tesla said that it "was another record quarter for Tesla by several measures such as revenues, vehicle deliveries, operating profit, and an operating margin of over 19 percent."

[...] In addition to expressing concern about the economy, Musk has been waffling on his commitment to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Given that, the "elephant in the room now remains the radio silence on Twitter deal," Ives wrote.

Was issuing the ultimatum simply a quick and dirty way to get people to leave without having to pay unemployment or buy them out, and is any of this related to buying Twitter?

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