Elon Musk orders Twitter employees back to the office

When Elon Musk agreed to purchase Twitter, he told staff members he would end the company’s remote work policy, except on a case-by-case basis. This week, he delivered.

Musk announced a remote work ban this week in his first email to employees, Bloomberg reported. The revised rules dictate employees need to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week, unless Musk grants his blessing otherwise.

The edict flies in the face of the company’s previous policies, which granted employees the freedom to work from anywhere permanently at the start of the pandemic. It’s the latest change Musk has rolled out in a tumultuous two weeks since he closed a deal to buy the social media giant for $44 billion.

The announcement is in line with Musk’s previous comments on remote work, which included the Tesla founder ordering all of the automotive company’s workers log 40 hours each week in the office — or find their way to a new job.

Prior to Musk’s takeover, Twitter shrank its office footprint in the Bay Area. The company scrapped a lease for an Oakland office and shut down one of its offices in San Francisco, which was attached to the company’s Market Street headquarters.

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As recently as January, the company was planning to expand its San Francisco headquarters by nearly 80,000 square feet. But growth slowed and uncertainty in the stock market lead many tech firms to lay off employees or shutter offices.

At the time of the Oakland office scuttling, Twitter also planned to downsize in Tokyo, Mumbai, New Delhi and Dublin. The company was also considering closing offices in Seoul, Wellington, Osaka, Madrid, Hamburg, Sydney and Utrecht.

Companies across the country have embraced either remote or hybrid work, recognizing employees no longer feel a desire or need to commute to an office. The pandemic-spurred movement has left office landlords picking up the pieces and pondering the future of the sector; some developers are pausing projects amid the uncertainty.

— Holden Walter-Warner