Elon Musk ends ‘work from home’ for Twitter staff

Elon Musk

Two years after Twitter announced a “permanent” work from home policy for employees, the platform’s new owner has asked staff to return to office immediately.

In his first direct email to Twitter employees sent late on Wednesday, Elon Musk ended remote work and warned staff of “difficult times ahead.”

“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Musk wrote in the email reviewed by Bloomberg. He said there was no way to “sugarcoat” the economic outlook.

Under the new rules, Twitter employees are expected to be in office 40 hours a week. Exceptions will only be made for employees who are physically unable to reach office and will be granted only after Musk personally signs off on them.

This is a massive shift from Twitter’s old policy, implemented during the pandemic, which allowed employees to work from anywhere. But Musk’s decision to end remote work was not wholly unexpected – the tech billionaire had earlier put an end to remote work for all employees at Tesla, laying down similar 40-hours-in-office guidelines.

Since taking control of the social media giant around two weeks ago, Musk has laid off close to 3,700 people, dismissed CEO Parag Agrawal and announced a new subscription model “Twitter Blue” for which users will have to shell out $8 a month.

In his email, Musk also told Twitter employees that he expected subscriptions to account for half of Twitter’s revenue.