Slamming the US work culture, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that American people do not want to work while their Chinese counterparts are way better when it comes to finishing the job. The world's richest man, during the 'Financial Times Future of the Car' summit, said that China is a land of super-talented people. "I think there will be some very strong companies coming out of China, there are just a lot of super-talented hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing," he told the audience late on Tuesday.
"They won't just be burning the midnight oil, they will be burning the 3 a.m. oil, they won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all," the Tesla CEO added. In 2018, Musk had tweeted: "There are easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world with 40 hours a week". Musk had said in an interview with Recode that he worked 120 hours per week while "everyone" at Tesla worked 100 hours per week.
He also said that people need to work from around 80 to over 100 hours per week to "change the world". "Varies per person, but about 80 sustained, peaking above 100 at times. Pain level increases exponentially above 80," he had said. Tesla has one of its Gigafactory in Shanghai that is currently facing logistics issues due to Covid-19 lockdowns. Musk also said that the proposed $44 billion acquisition of Twitter would not impact its operation in China. Musk's comments came amid reports that workers at the Shanghai Tesla factory were sleeping on-site and working 12-hour shifts with just one day off per week.