Ex-Tesla executive sues Elon Musk's company after being fired over its return to office policy

In June 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk notified his staff that remote work was no longer acceptable at the company.

A former Tesla executive has sued the company for hiring him for a remote role and thenimmediately threatening to fire him if he did not show up in the office. Mike Tully, who was an  compliance and operational risk specialist at Elon Musk's company, lived about 650 km away from Tesla's corporate office. He said that to comply with the return to office police, he would have had to move cities and even risk his marriage.

In his petition, Tully accused Tesla of getting him onboard after “being promised and assured” that he wouldn’t be required to move. The condition was important to Tully because he had an agonizing medical condition. Before this, the 55-year-old had worked with Bank of America for 16 years, the Independent reported.

Tully mentioned in his complaint that “he made it patently clear to everyone at Tesla that [leaving] Irvine [his hometown] was not negotiable,” and the relevant higher-ups vowed this would not be an issue. But when the company began to enforce its work from office policy, Tully, whose wife threatened to file for divorce if he insisted on uprooting her and their two children, felt “completely blindsided and misled by Tesla and its leadership team,” the complaint stated.

Moreover, his medical condition worsened due to the job-related stress he was experiencing. Tully claimed he informed the company’s HR department about his condition, but that he was fired anyway.

Musk was not mentioned by name in the complaint. The Tesla CEO has been a vocal advocate for return to office. He had in June 2022 notified his staff that remote work was no longer acceptable at the company. In an email, shared being circulated on Twitter, Musk wrote: "Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla." "This is less than we ask of factory workers," he added.

The tech billionaire also said that in case there are "exceptional contributors" who cannot work the minimum hours in office, Musk himself would review and approve of them directly.