Experts have warned that Tesla chief Elon Musk’s warning to fire anyone who did not work in the office 40 hours a week can trigger a mass exodus.
They believe that after Musk’s ultimatum many of the 100,000 people employed at the electric carmaker may already be considering their options.
According to Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom, “Tesla is kick-starting its own local Great Resignation.”
Bloom has predicted that while 10 per cent of Tesla’s will quit about 30 per cent would look for another job owing to a lack of work-life balance.
A vast majority of tech workers got used to working from home or hybrid policies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and do not want to return to office completely.
Several companies have already started poaching Tesla employees with the co-founder of software maker Atlassian Scott Farquhar tweeting if any of them is interested in joining his company.
Also see | From Tesla to Peloton, companies slow hiring as US economy sputters
Some Tesla employees have already complained that they had been under pressure to work in the office during the pandemic and got infected with coronavirus multiple times.
According to former and current employees, stock options are a bigger portion of executive compensation at Tesla than at its peers.
Musk’s public alignment with the Republican party and the steep drop in Tesla’s share price this year due to Musk’s costly pursuit of Twitter are additional factors that might contribute to the exodus.
Michael Solomon, founder of compensation negotiation advisory service 10x Ascend, told news agency Reuters that ”If this is sustained, they will absolutely have a retention problem.”
(With inputs from agencies)
Watch WION’s live TV here: