Elon Musk relaxes remote work policy at Twitter after ‘hardcore’ backlash

Billionaire had given staff until Thursday afternoon to accept new working conditions

Elon Musk appeared to soften his stance on remote work for Twitter employees after a backlash to his “extremely hardcore” ultimatum.

The billionaire had given staff at the social media platform until 5pm ET on Thursday to commit to a new work culture at the company or leave.

But with some staff opting to exit the San Francisco-based company rather than accept Mr Musk’s new diktats he appeared to alter his approach to employees working from home, reported CNN.

Following his $44bn takeover of the firm, Mr Musk told staff he was ending work from home and insisted that everyone needed to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week, or managers would assume they had resigned.

On Wednesday he told staff that they should be prepared to work “long hours at high intensity” to build “Twitter 2.0.”

But on Thursday afternoon, in an apparent attempt to retain staff, he sent another email clarifying his position on remote work.

“Regarding remote work, all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution,” Mr Musk said in an email seen by CNN.

He added that staff were expected to attend in-person meetings at least once a month.

And just 20 minutes after that email he sent another, warning managers about the new policy.

“At risk of stating the obvious, any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company,” he wrote.

The world’s richest person completed his chaotic takeover of the company last month and instantly fired its top executives. And a week later he fired half of the company’s 7,500 work force as well as many independent contractors.

Before his purchase, Twitter had a “work from home forever” policy that was brought in by founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey.