X Workers Reportedly Must Prove They Deserve Their Stock—Elon Musk’s Various Employee Policies, Explained
Key Facts
X is planning to use the anticipated impact of employees as a basis for what stock options will be awarded to them, according to an email sent to employees and viewed by The Verge, meaning staff members will need to write the one-page report about their contributions so they can receive stock.
The requirement comes amid a delayed promotions process at X, The Verge reported, noting Musk has previously told employees that stock could be cashed out regularly—just as employees can at his astronautics company SpaceX.
Shortly after his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Musk said in an email to employees the company would be transitioning to an “extremely hardcore” operation, one requiring staffers to work “long hours at high intensity,” according to The Washington Post, which noted the email asked employees to sign a pledge or leave the company with three months severance pay.
Musk was also a large proponent of returning to in-office work during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, demanding Tesla and SpaceX employees to “spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week” or be terminated, The New York Times reported.
Tesla began closely watching employee attendance in 2022, with managers sending Musk weekly reports on absences, NBC News reported, adding remote Tesla workers who could not relocate to be in the office full-time had about three months to make the move or leave the electric automaker.
Musk clamped down on remote work at X shortly after becoming the platform’s owner, requiring managers to meet in-person with employees at least once a month and threatening higher-ups with termination if they allowed an employee who was not “exceptional” to work remotely, according to NBC News.
Tangent
Tesla employees worked long hours for the company during its early days, resulting in staffers sleeping on floors after working shifts up to 12 hours long, The Verge reported, noting Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant had three times as many safety violations as 10 other U.S. car plants combined.
Musk’s Company’s Recent Heavy Turnover
Musk is also not afraid of cutting down on employees and being frank about layoffs. The billionaire told the BBC he laid off more than 6,000 people at X (about 80% of the company’s staff) within his first few months as the company’s chief, noting the process can sometimes be “painful.” Musk also laid off hundreds of Tesla employees earlier this year impacting more than 10% of the electric vehicle maker’s global workforce. The company later sought to hire 800 employees for service and artificial intelligence roles, Fortune reported.
Musk’s Contentious Relationship With Labor Unions
Musk has been accused of threatening workers who try to unionize—just this month, actually, after a conversation with former President Donald Trump that prompted the United Auto Workers to file federal labor charges against Musk and Trump. The former president talked about striking workers at a company he refused to name, saying, “they go on strike and you say, ‘that’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’” The United Auto Workers, which represents more than 391,000 workers at automakers like Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, argued Musk and Trump “advocated for the illegal firing of striking workers,” and claimed Musk “adopted” the stance. (Musk’s Tesla is the only major U.S. automaker whose workers are not represented by a union.) In 2018, Musk asked in a tweet why Tesla workers would pay union dues and “give up stock options for nothing?” The National Labor Relations Board later condemned the post, saying it was threatening to Tesla labor organizers.
Key Background
The high expectations and strict policies at Musk’s companies are likely partially derived from the billionaire’s own work ethic. Musk made headlines in 2018 when he revealed he slept on couches and under his desk during production of the Tesla Model 3, telling CBS he did not have time to go home and shower. That level of commitment has seeped into his expectations of employees, as the billionaire told investors during an earnings call early this year that Tesla workers may need to sleep on the production line as the company pushed to build a new, affordable line of electric vehicles, according to Business Insider.
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