Musk still not a fan of remote work
October 23, 2023

If Elon Musk’s life tells a story about anything to anyone, it’s certainly the story of one man’s popularity rising and falling with the swinging tides of his outpourings into the void. The man is now making headlines for yet again making his opinions about working from home known – in the middle of a discussion about the affordability of Teslas. The incident took place in a discussion on Tesla’s third-quarter financial results call. 

Tesla Inc. reported its third-quarter earnings for the year on 18 October. The company reported an (adjusted) EPS of $0.66, a fall of 0.08 from a previously estimated $0.74. Tesla also failed to meet its expected revenue for the quarter. However, the automaker reaffirmed its production target of 1.8 million vehicles for the year. The CEO addressed investors and analysts on an earnings call afterwards. The company’s stocks rose by half a point in after-hours trading following the publication of the results and dipped a dramatic 3% as Musk’s call went on, closing a full 4.8% lower by the end of the day (Wednesday). 

Musk still not a fan of remote work

Tesla’s earnings however are not what’s making the rounds on the internet, its Musks very vocally expressed anger at those who prefer remote work over working in the office. 

According to Musk, those who want to work remotely should take into account those who don’t have the opportunity to do so and criticized their “Marie Antoinette” vibes. Marie Antoinette is France’s last queen, to whom the quote ‘Let them eat cake’ is very famously attributed. Historians of course doubt whether she ever really said such a thing, since the quote was not attributed to her until well over half a century after her death. 

Musk’s full words to the media were;

“…that looks like some Marie Antoinette vibes. Like… what about all the people that have to come to the factory and build the cars? What about all of the people that have to go to the restaurant and make your food, and deliver your food? It’s like, what are you talking about…?”

The reference and the consideration of those who ‘have’ to come to work while others don’t seem strangely compassionate – even socialistic – of the famous capitalist. 

It’s an interesting conceptual exercise to extend this style of comparison between everyone working at Tesla. The idea of no one benefitting from someone else’s labour can be vetted against everyone’s perks, salary packages, paid leave, and mandatory obligations in the organisation.  

Of making comparisons, Musk himself was born in South Africa, into a very wealthy family. Elon’s father is an electromechanical engineer, property developer, pilot, sailor, rental lodge owner, and even once held part of a diamond mine. His mother is a Canadian-born model and dietician. He made his proclivities clear early on in life, developing and selling his BASIC-based game to the PC and Office Technology magazine for what amounted to $500 at the time. 

The PayPal co-founder’s criticism of proponents of remote work did not stop at highlighting the privilege of those who had the option of deciding what they wanted to with in comparison with workers on the assembly lines in his company. Elon also denounced preferers of remote work as people ‘detached from reality’. Like most things, working remotely comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Workers who prefer remote work generally do so because of the flexibility it offers insofar that there is less time spent in commute, less need to invest time and money in dressing professionally, and most importantly, the ability to take part in the lives of their loved ones more. That every adult from the day they start working has to give over 8 of their waking hours, five days of the week to their workplaces deserves its own place in a list of modern day’s greatest tragedies. Working from home compensates for this by allowing people more space to make most of the time they have with their parents, their partners, children, relatives, and friends. Having to ‘go’ to work truly detaches people from this cherished reality. 

Elon himself is a passionate proponent of familial love. He is the father of eleven children, including a set of triplets and a pair of twins. Elon had his first six children with long-time ex-wife Justine Wilson, with the first child being born in 2002. Speaking to media following Elon’s split from Justine after seven years of marriage, he said, “custody of our children is split evenly, almost all of my non-work waking hours are spent with my boys, and they are the love of my life”. One of his children would later go on to file for a legal change of her name, and in her petition for the name change explained part of her reasoning as “the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”. It is difficult to imagine how the estrangement took place. Elon has at times been criticised for his extensive family building, given that having a great many children is less and less the norm these days. Musk however has defended his choice to build a big family, as “one of the biggest risks to civilisation is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birthrate… please look at the numbers – if people don’t have more children, civilisation is going to crumble”. None of his children have made their opinions on their father’s philosophies public. 

As mentioned, Elon’s critique of remote work took place during a discussion on Tesla’s quarterly performance, where Musk prefaced a discussion on lowering the cost of a Tesla with the statement: “Why did I sleep in the factory so many times? Because it mattered”. Musk’s management style at work is described in the media as “micromanaging”. This has led to criticisms that Musk’s ambition to build his projects from the bottom up frequently led to bad decision-making. His employees have described his refusal to go down the beaten path and even advice from industry veterans as a reason why Tesla has lost a lot of time and money over the years. The words of the employees who have no option but to come to work and assemble Musk’s ideas seem to imply that they would appreciate seeing Musk around the factory a lot less.

Elon Musk is currently the single wealthiest individual in the world according to publicly available data, with an estimated net worth of $226 billion. He also took the Giving Pledge in 2012, which is a promise made by the world’s wealthiest individuals in the world to give away the bulk of his wealth to help address the most pressuring issues in society.

(Theruni Liyanage)

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