Elon Musk reportedly demands Tesla, SpaceX employees return to the office

Elon Musk reportedly wants employees at Tesla and SpaceX to return to the office or find another job.

The world’s richest man and the two companies’ founder sent an email to employees demanding they work a minimum of 40 hours per week in the office, according to reports from Reuters and The New York Times.

“If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” reads the email, reports Reuters, which cites two anonymous sources verifying its authenticity.

In an email obtained by The New York Times, Musk makes a similar directive to employees of his aerospace company SpaceX.

Tesla, which dissolved its public relations department, could not be immediately reached for comment.

When asked on Twitter by the blog Whole Mars Catalog about the Tesla email and remote work, Musk responded: “They should pretend to work somewhere else.”

Companies have been eager to get employees back into the office after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many to work remotely to limit the spread of the virus.

However, as inflation surges, and everything from gas prices to grocery prices climbing, many workers fear the financial costs of returning to the office will be too high.

Meanwhile, Musk is still navigating a potential deal to acquire social media company Twitter for $44 billion. Last month, Musk said the deal couldn’t move forward until Twitter can verify that less than 5% of its user accounts are fake or spam.