Elon Musk Sends 2:30 a.m. Decree to Twitter Staff Ending a Popular Practice

Musk sticks with a belief he has always held.

Since the early days of the Elon Musk era at Twitter, the owner and CEO has taken an uncompromising position on one expectation of his workers.

And he reiterated that demand in an overnight message to employees March 22.

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"Elon Musk sent Twitter employees an email at 2:30 a.m. saying the 'office is not optional' and noting SF was half empty yesterday," wrote Zoë Schiffer, a managing editor at Platformer, as part of a tweet.

The mandate for in-office work should come as no surprise, even if the timing of the announcement seems odd.

Soon after taking over the social media microblogging company on Oct. 27, 2022, Musk announced to employees that he would be ending remote work, due to "difficult times ahead."

At the time, he said he expected employees to work from the office 40 hours per week, and any exceptions would need to have been approved by him.

Musk's predecessors had previously said, during the covid pandemic, that employees could work from anywhere.

"The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen," Twitter said back in May 2020.

Well before buying Twitter, Musk was already on the record with his opposition to working from home.

"All the covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!" he posted on Twitter on May 26, 2022.

He ordered his Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report employees to return to the office the next month.

"Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week," he wrote at the time in an email to employees. "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."

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