Is Elon Musk Risking Loss Of Talent With Tesla's Return To Office Push?

Tesla, Inc. TSLA chief executive officer Elon Musk is not known for mincing words, and it therefore came as no surprise when he made it clear that remote work is no longer acceptable at the automaker. 

In no uncertain terms, he clarified that Tesla workers should "work for a minimum of 40 hours per week in office or depart."
The Tesla chief's statement comes at a time when corporate workers are voicing opposition against the forced mandate to return to work following more than two years of working from home amid the pandemic.

Musk Hardens Tone: In a follow-up email that was meant to clarify his previous one, Musk was a little more verbose, explaining the rationale for the entreaty.

The office must be the place where colleagues are located and not "some remote pseudo office," he said.

"If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," Musk said.

This is clearly an ultimatum. While in the previous email he gave the choice to the employees to come to office or quit, in the latest one he suggested a unilateral action of termination by the company.

Musk also went at length explaining why he wants Tesla employees back at the  office. He said the more your seniority is, the more visible you should be. Taking himself as an example, he said this is the reason why he has lived in the factory and works alongside employees.

"If I had not done that, Tesla would have gone bankrupt," Musk said.

Companies that don't have the "return to workplace" mandate may not want that because they aren't working on any "great new product, Musk said. Alternatively, Tesla continues to create and manufacture the "most exciting and meaningful products" on Earth, he added.

"This will not happen by phoning it in."

Related Link: Why This Tesla Analyst Thinks Worst May Be Behind For The EV Pioneer

Is Musk Risking Talent Drain? Musk's stern call to get Tesla employees back at workplace could cost him dearly, according to a Bloomberg report.

Companies that demand that employees return could face a two-pronged problem — having access to a smaller pool of talent and having to pay higher compensation as an incentive, the report said, citing Gartner human-resources research executive Brian Kropp.

This was evident in the case of Apple, Inc. AAPL. When Apple took a measured approach to get employees back at its premises, the latter began taking up cudgels against the company's move. Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, quit last month in protest of this policy.

Tesla, however, could call the shots in this matter. Universum's survey of the most attractive U.S. employers in 2021 shows Musk's SpaceX venture and Tesla are the most attractive employers in the field of engineering.

If Musk extrapolates this policy to Twitter, Inc. TWTR, which he has agreed to buy, it could all the more alienate the employees of the social media platform. Twitter for now gives its employees the option to decide whether they want to work from home permanently or come to office.

TSLA Price Action: Tesla stock slipped 2.36% before closing Wednesday's session at $740.37, according to Benzinga Pro data.