Musk’s trouble is that much of the rest of the world has jumped on to the environmental imperative but he has become a laggard on social and governance issues, writes Elizabeth Knight | OPINION elonmusk remoteworking
Tesla’s exclusion from the sought after index appears even more bizarre when the two biggest car makers in the US, GM and Ford, which have been forced by Tesla to switch to manufacturing electric vehicles, did make the cut.
As progressive as the move to electric cars is from an environmental perspective, Musk’s latest move to ignore the shift towards hybrid working is, in a ‘social’ sense, another example of his tone-deaf attitude to societal change.: “Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.
It is further evidence that while Musk is ahead of the curve on the environment he is behind it in a social and a governance sense.Musk’s trouble is that much of the rest of the world has jumped on to the environmental imperative but he has become a laggard on social and governance issues. Musk’s response to Tesla’s exclusion from the ESG index was to take to Twitter to call the index out as a scam, saying it had lost its integrity.But it isn’t just the social aspect of ESG where Musk falls short.His outbursts on social media that challenge or ignore disclosure regulations, his Twitter tantrums and his run-ins with the US securities regulator that have forced the company to install an independent chairperson at Tesla and led to the imposition of fines, are all legendary.