Elon Musk Bans Remote Work For Twitter Staff In His First Ever Email To Them

Elon Musk Bans Remote Work At Twitter, Staff Expected To Be In Office 40 Hours A Week

During the pandemic, many of us would have gotten used to the “new normal” of working from home most of the week.

But when Elon Musk took over Twitter, his first order of business was to ban remote work for staff.

In an email he sent to staff on Wednesday (9 Nov), he said that remote work is only allowed if he personally approves it.

Under these new rules, all employees are expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week, reported Bloomberg.

Elon Musk bans remote work for Twitter staff

In his very first email to Twitter employees on Wednesday (9 Nov), Mr Musk declared that remote work is banned unless he personally gives someone the green light to do so.

Effective immediately, the new rules also expect all staff to be in the office at least 40 hours a week.

This is similar to the requirements he allegedly set for Tesla employees in June this year.

Preparing staff for “difficult times ahead”, Mr Musk said that there was “no way to sugarcoat” the economic outlook and how it will affect Twitter.

Before Mr Musk took over, Twitter had a permanent work-from-anywhere arrangement for employees.

According to Bloomberg, when Mr Musk had a call with Twitter staff after announcing the deal to buy the company early this year, remote work was one of the first topics he addressed.

Back then, he was against remote work and shared that he would only make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

True to his word, this is now what he has implemented at Twitter.

Tells staff ‘intense work’ is needed

In the two short weeks since taking over, Mr Musk had retrenched about half of Twitter’s workforce.

Earlier on, the billionaire had taken away “days of rest” from Twitter staff.

This refers to a monthly company-wide day off introduced during the Covid-19 period, reported Bloomberg.

He has also made changes to the platform, increasing the price of the Twitter Blue subscription and attaching user verification to it.

This is a premium monthly paid subscription that adds a blue checkmark to users’ accounts.

He told employees that he hoped to see subscriptions account for half of Twitter’s revenue.

Mr Musk also emphasised that the top priority over the next few days was finding and suspending any verified bots, trolls, or spam accounts.

In his lengthy email to employees, he explained that “intense work” is needed to succeed as the road ahead will be arduous.

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Featured image adapted from The Washington Post.