Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, who has shared his views on everything from the war in Ukraine to the bitter court battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in recent weeks, weighed-in on work-from-home trends last night on his soon-to-be privately-owned Twitter (TWTR) account.
Musk, who leads a handful of companies and works seemingly around-the-clock, claimed last night that he told Tesla's executive staff to work "a minimum" of forty hours per week in the company's offices or "they should pretend to work somewhere else".
Musk added in the leaked email, titled "working from home is no longer acceptble (sic)" that the work commitment must be made in a "main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties, for example being responsible for Fremont factory human relations, but having your office be in another state.”
Tesla shares were marked 0.7% lower in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $753.00 each, a move that would extend their year-to-date decline to around 37%.
Musk's musings on work-from-home trends may not sit will with Twitter staff, who were told in early March by CEO Parag Agrawal that they could work remotely "forever".
Twitter fully-reopened its San Francisco offices in mid-March, following pandemic era closures in 2020, but Agrawal stressed that the company's approach "remains the same".
"Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work and that includes working from home full-time forever," he said in a company-wide memo. "Office every day? That works too. Some days in office, some days from home? Of course.”
Twitter reiterated its commitment to Musk's proposed takeover in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month, while Musk told a conference in Miami that he could still be interested in acquiring the group at a lower price, despite his concerns over the number of so-called bot accounts on the platform.
Analysts at Hindenburg Research, a noted short-seller, cautioned that the deal could be 'repriced' if Musk threatens to walk away.
Twitter shares were last seen 0.25% lower at $39.60 each, some 27% south of Musk's "best and final" offer of $54.20 per share.