Elon Musk got into a fight via Twitter with Australia’s third richest man on Friday over the value of ending the work-from-home habit developed during the pandemic.
In an internal email this week, the billionaire declared that “everyone at Tesla has an obligation to spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office”, and that “if you don’t show up we’ll assume you’ve resigned”. This has drawn criticism from activists fighting to protect workers from potential exposure to the coronavirus.
Scott Farquhar, one of the founders of Atlassian, an Australian producer of project management software, derided the directive in a series of tweets, describing it as “something straight out of the 1950s”. His company policy, which is publicly traded in the United States, is that its employees can work from anywhere, and he described it as “essential to our continued growth.”
“We are targeting an increase in Atlassian’s workforce to 25,000 by fiscal 2026,” concluded Farquhar. “Any Tesla employees interested?”
Musk counterattacked. “The above set of tweets illustrate why recessions serve a vital economic cleanup function.”
The brawl is not uncommon for the Tesla CEO, who often uses Twitter to make candid statements on sensitive issues.
In Silicon Valley, many tech companies have adopted a mix of office and remote work during the pandemic, while others have set return-to-office dates but postponed when new outbreaks of the disease emerged.
The richest man on the planet also has a history of clashes with other billionaires. In 2021, he posted a second-place medal image in response to a tweet in which Jeff Bezos celebrated Amazon’s success.
In 2017, Mike Cannon-Brookes, who founded Atlassian with Farquhar, cooperated with Musk, publicly accepting and facilitating his offer to supply a powerful Tesla battery facility to the state of South Australia after it suffered a blackout that year. .
Cannon-Brookes, who has since spearheaded a campaign to buy Australian energy company AGL Energy and accelerate its transition to renewable energy, reposted remarks in which Farquhar criticized Musk’s return-to-office order.
Translation by Paulo Migliacci
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