UPDATE: While Tesla would not give AutoblogGreen an official comment on the matter, Musk himself took to Twitter to say that, "It is total BS & hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child's birth just to attend a company meeting. I would never do that."
Elon Musk comes off as innovative, driven, and kind of a jerk in a new book set to hit selves next week. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest of a Fantastic Future, by Bloomberg reporter Ashlee Vance, details the drive that makes the man behind Tesla Motors tick. One person in the book even estimates Musk works 23-hours a day, according to Business Insider.
But what has many talking is his attitude towards employees' lives outside of the office. When an unnamed employee missed a work function to attended the birth of their child instead, Musk wrote this chilly email, The Washington Post reported: "That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We're changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don't."
Maybe it's Musk who just doesn't get it? After all, the legendary work-a-holic's ex-wife Justine Musk recently described geniuses as needing to be obsessive, and a little strange, to be great. Musk clearly expects his employees to show the same level of commitment. We heard the same tune when we sat down with Musk a few years ago. "If you work for Tesla, the minimum is really a 50-hour week and there are times when it'll be 60- to 80-hour weeks," Musk told AutoblogGreen. "...it also means you're working your ass off. It's not for everyone."
Tesla Motors declined to comment on the contents of the book.
Elon Musk comes off as innovative, driven, and kind of a jerk in a new book set to hit selves next week. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest of a Fantastic Future, by Bloomberg reporter Ashlee Vance, details the drive that makes the man behind Tesla Motors tick. One person in the book even estimates Musk works 23-hours a day, according to Business Insider.
But what has many talking is his attitude towards employees' lives outside of the office. When an unnamed employee missed a work function to attended the birth of their child instead, Musk wrote this chilly email, The Washington Post reported: "That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We're changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don't."
Maybe it's Musk who just doesn't get it? After all, the legendary work-a-holic's ex-wife Justine Musk recently described geniuses as needing to be obsessive, and a little strange, to be great. Musk clearly expects his employees to show the same level of commitment. We heard the same tune when we sat down with Musk a few years ago. "If you work for Tesla, the minimum is really a 50-hour week and there are times when it'll be 60- to 80-hour weeks," Musk told AutoblogGreen. "...it also means you're working your ass off. It's not for everyone."
Tesla Motors declined to comment on the contents of the book.
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