Elon Musk describes his vacations as ‘email with a view’

The Twitter owner has recently told staff they must commit to ‘hardcore’ work ethic or will be fired

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and recent Twitter owner, has described his vacations as “email with a view”.

The Tesla CEO was testifying in court on Wednesday when he made the comment. Musk is currently being sued in a shareholder lawsuit, which challenges a compensation package he was awarded by Tesla’s board of directors that’s potentially worth more than $55bn.

During the Delaware court hearing, Musk was questioned by the ​​plaintiff’s attorney, Greg Varallo, about vacations he had reportedly taken with Tesla director, James Murdoch.

“‘Vacation’ is a strong word,” Musk responded, according to Bloomberg. “For me it’s an email with a view.”

The SpaceX founder has often professed to working up to 100 hours a week, skipping breakfast, and sleeping about six hours a day. But ever since he purchased Twitter for $44bn last month, Musk has sent his “hardcore” work ethic into overdrive – and expects his Twitter employees to do the same.

In an email that was sent out to Twitter staff this week, the billionaire told employees they must commit to an “extremely hardcore” company or risk being fired. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” he said, according to reports. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

Staff were forced to click “yes” on a link to pledge themselves to the “new Twitter”, with a commitment required by Thursday. “Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance,” the email said.

The “hardcore” commitment comes just one week after Musk ended all remote work for Twitter staff, expecting them to work in the office at least 40 hours a week.

The first few weeks of Musk’s Twitter takeover has been marked by hundreds of firings, layoffs, and a number of new features which were later rolled back. In order to “fix” Twitter, Musk has claimed he’s been sleeping at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

“I’ve been at Twitter SF HQ all night,” Musk tweeted on 14 November. “Will be working and sleeping here until org is fixed.”

Elon Musk’s luxurious vacations made headlines earlier this year when viral photos of himself shirtless and aboard a yacht in Greece became a meme. In one photo, Musk is seen wearing a bathing suit with a drink in his hand and a towel wrapped around his waist. Another image, which was taken of the Tesla CEO from the side, became a meme largely due to Musk’s pale skin tone.

Musk responded to some of the memes, including one side-by-side photo of Musk and a white bulldog standing on its hind legs. “My calves are bigger tho,” he replied to the tweet.

“Haha damn, maybe I should take off my shirt more often… free the nip!!” he posted in response to another image of himself shirtless.