Tesla is now tracking how frequently staffers swipe into the office

Tesla workers are being warned by automated emails if they don’t swipe into the office frequently enough, after CEO Elon Musk threatened to fire anyone who failed to return to the office full time.

The latest shot in Musk’s war against working from home was leaked this week, when a Tesla employee posted a screenshot of an email saying they failed to ‘badge in’ to the office frequently enough.

‘This is an automated notification,’ the email read. ‘You are receiving this email because there is no record of you using your badge to enter a Tesla facility on at least 16 days over the 30-day period ending on June 28.’ 

‘As a reminder, all employees are expected to be back in the office, fulltime. We realize that there are various reasons why you may not have badged in, including illness, vacation or traveling for business,’ the email added.

‘Whatever the case, please clear the reason for you absence with your manager by email,’ the message said.

 

A Tesla employee posted a screenshot of an email saying they failed to ‘badge in’ to the office frequently enough

A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Thursday evening. 

It comes after Musk ordered employees to return to the office or leave the company in a May 31 email. 

‘Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,’ Musk wrote in the email. ‘If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.’

‘The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,’ Musk wrote. ‘That is why I lived in the factory so much – so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.’

Amid Musk’s crackdown on working from home, the CEO has also been carrying out his vow to cut about 10 percent of salaried staff at the electric carmaker.

The billionaire sent an internal email warning earlier this month of the need for cuts amid a gloomy economic outlook due to inflation and the brutal war in Ukraine. Musk himself said he had a ‘super bad feeling’ about the economy. 

Earlier this week, Tesla told at least 195 of the 276 staffers at the San Mateo, California office that they were being laid off, while those that remain were told they will be relocated, according to TechCrunch. 

‘Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,’ Musk wrote in a second email sent to staff hours after the first, which was leaked and widely shared

The San Mateo offices were heavily involved with the Tesla Autopilot driver-assistance system. Staff were informed of the decision Tuesday.

Those laid off were considered ‘moderately low-skilled, low-wage’ workers that often did jobs like determining if the company’s driver assistance program correctly identified objects. 

Musk has previously hit out against remote working policies and blasted Americans for ‘trying to avoid going to work at all’ and compared them to staff in China who stay at the factory ‘burning the 3am oil’.

In April, staff at Tesla’s Gigafactory were made to sleep at work when production resumed after a three-week shutdown. 

The factory started operating as a ‘closed loop system to avoid further shutdowns caused by China’s strict Zero Covid policy.

Workers were given a sleeping bag and mattress and part of the factory floor to camp out on. 

An aerial view of the Tesla Fremont Factory on May 12, 2020 in Fremont, California

Tesla is cutting about 200 employees from its office in San Mateo, California as part of continued cuts by the electric car giants that will see the location close altogether

Meanwhile, world’s richest man Musk is currently embroiled in a months-long deal to but Silicon Valley social media giant Twitter for roughly $44 billion

Food of around $63 a day was provided to each employee but they were expected to work 12 hours a day, with one day off every six days.

Before the temporary measures were imposed, staff reportedly worked eight-hour shifts with four days on and two days off.   

Before Shanghai’s lockdown on March 28, the Gigafactory produced 2,000 cars a day and made half of the vehicles the company delivered worldwide last year.

Last month, Musk, who is currently in negotiations with Twitter over buying the social media giant, seemingly took aim at the company’s lax remote working policies.

He said he asked his Twitter followers if he should transform the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters into a homeless shelters ‘since no one shows up anyway’.

It comes after Twitter brass – who offered staffers the option of working from home ‘forever’ during the pandemic – reopened its offices March 15, with remote work remaining an option for staffers.

Musk has warned in recent weeks about the risks of recession, but ordering a hiring freeze and staff cuts was the most direct and high-profile message of its kind.

Responding to a question on Twitter from a follower about whether he has a comment to ‘people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept’, Musk wrote back: ‘They should pretend to work somewhere else’

Remotely addressing a conference in mid-May in Miami Beach, he said: ‘I think we are probably in a recession and that recession will get worse.’

Almost 100,000 people were employed at Tesla and its subsidiaries at the end of 2021, its annual SEC filing showed.

Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomic research at ING, said: ‘Musk’s bad feeling is shared by many people.

‘We’re talking about stagnation and a global economy which has to go through significant structural change, such as decarbonization, deglobalisation and adjusting to older societies.

‘But we are not talking about global recession. We expect a cooling of the global economy towards the end of the year.

‘The US will cool off, while China and Europe are not going to rebound. Laying off workers, however, is not the best reaction. We will need skilled workers more than ever in the future. This could turn into firing and then hiring.’

Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive of JPMorgan Chase, described the challenges facing the US economy earlier this week as akin to a ‘hurricane’.

However, although financial experts acknowledged a ‘bad feeling’, many were unsure a global recession is on the cards.

Fiona Cincotta, a financial markets analyst at City Index in London, said: ‘Although the Fed thinks a soft landing is possible… there are some warning signs in the economy.

‘We know that growth is slowing and inflation remains persistently high and we know that the Fed will need to act aggressively to bring inflation back down.

‘The question is – will they be able to act as aggressively as they need to, and obviously Elon Musk doesn’t think that they’re going to be able to, without putting the economy into a deep recession. China slowdown is an added problem.’

Other companies have cut jobs or are slowing or pausing hiring amid weakening demand. Last month, Netflix said it had laid off about 150 people, mostly in the US, and Peloton said in February it would cut 2,800 jobs.

Meta, Uber and other technology companies have slowed hiring. In June 2018, Musk said Tesla would cut 9 per cent of its workforce as the then-loss-making company struggled to ramp up output of Model 3 electric sedans.

Meanwhile the world’s richest man is still embroiled in a months-long deal to buy Silicon Valley social media giant Twitter for roughly $44billion.

His stark anti-remote sentiments are expected to fly in the face of the company’s more relaxed work from home rules – which allow employees to work remotely forever.

In April, after the deal was announced, Musk seemed to take a shot at this policy, asking his followers if he should transform the company’s Bay Area headquarters into a homeless shelter because ‘no one shows up anyway.’

Twitter’s top brass – who offered staffers the option of working from home ‘forever’ during the pandemic – reopened its offices March 15, with remote work remaining an option for staffers.

‘It’s been almost two years since we closed our offices and travel and I’m excited to announce that we’re ready to fully open up business travel and all our offices around the world!’ Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote in a note to employees posted to Twitter March 3.

‘Business travel is back effective immediately, and office openings will start on March 15,’ the exec wrote.

Twitter has not issued any in-person requirements for its staffers. The deal is expected to close later this year. Tesla was not immediately available for comment.