Elon Musk has been known to run a tight ship since he acquired Twitter. The Tesla CEO previously said that remote work was no longer acceptable, and that employees should work 40 hours a week. However, the tech billionaire has had a change of heart as of late, as mentioned by Engadget, since remote work is again allowed.
Not as Fun For Managers
Being an employee at Twitter comes with a lot of uncertainty, based on the number of workers that were laid off. Musk has been more strict, and the smallest mistake like criticizing him via Slack could be the root of unemployment. But, a glimmer of hope comes for some workers, since the remote work policy has changed.
This may have been a breather for workers, but managers will have more on their shoulders for it. Musk said that he will be punishing the managers if employees under them underperform. He said that falsely claiming that employees are doing excellent work, remote or not, will get them fired.
Since managers have to take responsibility for employees to work remotely, it might add more pressure instead of toning it down. This could be problematic, especially since the Twitter owner seems to be concerned, that employees may not be on board with the extreme work policies.
Before the acquisition of Twitter by the tech mogul, Twitter already had a permanent remote work arrangement, partly because of the pandemic. Musk has already expressed before the purchase, that he was against remote work, and that he can make exceptions by choosing them himself, as mentioned in Bloomberg.
This goes in line with the Google Form that employees had to fill out recently, wherein workers would have to check a box stating that they agree to "long hours and high intensity." If the employees do not agree, then they will be given severance.
Why the Sudden Change of Heart?
This could be to decrease the tension among the employees. The issues within Twitter have proven to be a nail-biter, especially for those who work there. Not to mention the impacted morale especially with the mass job cuts.
This could also be a move to avoid further issues, as a former Twitter employee has just filed a class action suit against Twitter, because of the remote work policy. Dmitry Borodaenko, a former engineer on the platform, expressed that his disability hindered him from working in the office.
He claims that he was promised that he would still have a remote job, even after the platform's change of ownership. Borodaenko later said that since the company changed the arrangements for remote work, it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Fair Housing and Employment Act.
The promise made to the former engineer clashes with Musk's statement, wherein he said that people who won't return to the office can't remain in the company. Being a cancer survivor, the former engineer said in Slack that he was more at risk from COVID, and won't work until the pandemic was over.
The message he sent got him fired, with an email saying that they regret to inform him of the news, but his recent behavior violated company policy. This message was also included in the lawsuit, as well as his statement about being more at risk from the virus, as mentioned in Business Insider.
