How much of a workaholic is Elon Musk?

The billionaire works over 120 hours a week, takes only 2-3 days off a year, and brings a pillow to the office to sleep under his desk.

Billionaire Elon Musk is known for being a workaholic and frequently mentions this. In recent weeks, he has continued to talk about long working hours and rare vacations. The billionaire has also called those who prefer working from home "living in a fantasy world ."

Since starting his business 30 years ago, the billionaire has thoroughly embraced Silicon Valley culture, which involves working late into the night at the office. His open talk about sacrifice has helped him create a demanding culture at the companies he runs, including Tesla and SpaceX.

Currently, he is also experimenting with this approach on Twitter to restructure the company and its workforce. He describes this effort as "quite painful."

Musk's "live at work" principle clashes with the new generation's desire for remote work. Musk's approach also raises questions about how best to motivate employees: Should we give them flexible time to balance work and life? Or should we push them by working frantically ourselves and expecting them to do the same?

Elon Musk at the opening ceremony of Tesla's factory in Berlin, Germany, in 2022. Photo: Zuma Press

In a Wall Street Journal panel in May, when asked about how he manages his workload, Musk said that each day he tries to divide his time between two companies. For example, Tuesday is dedicated to Tesla. But he might also finish work at Twitter. Musk said that buying Twitter brought his total work week to over 120 hours.

"You can imagine. My day is very long and complicated," Musk said.

A week earlier, Musk had told CNBC in an interview that he only takes two or three days off a year. "I work seven days a week, but I don't expect other people to do the same," he said.

However, he also signaled that he expected others to do nearly as well. When he first took over Twitter, Musk asked new employees if they were prepared to work long hours and "intensely." This is a phrase he often used at Tesla to boost employee morale.

Last month, Twitter employees filed a lawsuit against Musk because the billionaire demanded that the meeting room be renovated into a "bedroom" so that exhausted employees could take a nap. He also wanted a bathroom installed right next to his office "so he wouldn't have to wake the security team and walk across half a floor to use the bathroom in the middle of the night."

In a recent interview with the BBC , Musk described taking over Twitter as "painful," similar to how he described the difficult times at Tesla before the electric car company became consistently profitable. In 2021, he described his experience at the company as "equivalent to two-thirds of the pain of my entire life."

As for his first startup, Zip2, Musk also showed an interest in stories of overcoming adversity. Jim Ambras, who was the vice president of product development for Zip2, still remembers Musk expressing admiration for Sumner Redstone and how he overcame difficulties to become a media mogul.

In 1979, at the age of 55, Redstone suffered severe burns to his hands in a hotel fire. However, this did not prevent him from building a media empire that included the television channel CBS and the film studio Paramount Pictures.

"He likes people who can do really difficult things," Ambras said.

Musk is known for praising those who are willing to make sacrifices. In a Financial Times forum last year, he expressed admiration for Chinese workers. "They work until 3 a.m. They don't even leave the factory, while Americans just try to avoid going to work," he said.

Musk's sleeping habits also reflect the challenges he faces. In a 2018 interview with the WSJ , when Tesla's factory was struggling with Model 3 production, Musk always kept a pillow next to him. He said he slept under his desk. "I haven't left the factory in three days. If you see me looking disheveled, that's why," he said.

Around that same time, Musk took a CBS reporter on a tour of the factory and pointed to the sofa where he slept. "It's awful," he said. Musk also scheduled a phone interview with the New York Times at 3 a.m.

He later explained to Bloomberg Businessweek : "I slept on the floor because I couldn't afford a hotel across the street. I wanted to experience the worst that anyone else in the company could. When they were in pain, I wanted to experience even worse."

Ha Thu (according to WSJ)

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