Musk is building a city for his employees

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Entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk (51) regularly makes headlines for his mistreatment of his employees. For example, employees at the text messaging service Twitter have repeatedly had to spend the night in the office due to sheer work stress.

Musk is now trying to find a unique solution to the image problem: he’s building his own city in the US state of Texas, as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reveals. It will be built near Austin, the capital of Texas. Large production facilities of Musk’s companies SpaceX, Tesla and Boring Company are located here.

Musk wants his employees here to be able to “live in new homes with below-market rents.” Others take a critical view on this, too: For years, big tech companies have offered numerous conveniences to their workplaces in the US and elsewhere, often on their own campuses. This makes employees happy. First of all, employees, as it has been said, identify even more closely with the company.

The hidden reason: employees also accept longer working hours. Musk can take this approach to the extreme by establishing his own company city.

Welcome to Snailbrook!

The start of construction was already in 2021, the available area was estimated at 1415 hectares. But it could be much bigger: Musk apparently owns up to 2,430 hectares of land in the region.

The WSJ relies on title and deed records, internal communications, government permits, and interviews with property owners. Photos circulating on Twitter reveal that the first modular houses, pool, tennis court and gym were installed on the site of the planned city. At least 110 modular homes will be built. Applications for the water treatment plant and school construction have already been received.

While the city has not yet been officially incorporated, arrivals are greeted with a flag in “Snailbrook, Texas.” The name is inspired by the snail, the Boring Company’s mascot. Because Musk once demanded that the company’s exercises move “faster than snails.” And Snailbrook is right next to a Boring Company facility in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin.

Is this what employees want?

For employees, the offer sounds good at first glance. According to the report, they only have to pay about $800 a month for one- and two-bedroom apartments, and the distance to their respective workplaces is short. However, there is a requirement that they leave the offices within 30 days if they are dismissed or resigned.

This close connection with the workplace seems less appealing, given Musk’s history of enforcing “hard hours” on Twitter and frequently firing and humiliating employees via Twitter. It is also likely that Musk will create a labor law-free zone with his city. His regular conflicts with state supervisory authorities are well known. That’s one of the reasons why he pulled a Tesla manufacturing facility from California and moved it to Texas, where he was given more “freedom of enterprise.”

Source :Blick