UMD Smith Experts Comment, Available on Elon Musk Eliminating Twitter’s ‘Days of Rest,’ Remote Work

In addition to mass layoffs, Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition reportedly includes elimination of the company’s “Days of Rest” — monthly days off for employees to recharge — and work-from-anywhere policies.

Experts at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business on work-life balance and workplace efficiency are available to discuss these topics in the context of the developments affecting Twitter workers.

Gilad Chen, Robert H. Smith Chair in Organization Behavior and Associate Dean for Research, focuses his study on work motivation, adaptation, teams and leadership.

He says: “Evidence is rather mixed as to whether and how firms should utilize remote and hybrid work post-COVID. On the one hand, current and prospective employees indicate growing interest in hybrid work, and more and more firms move towards that direction. On the other hand, there are firms that will no doubt do well with less or even no remote work, and — importantly — what hybrid means to different firms and even units within firms can take on very different shapes and forms. Thus, although clearly Musk’s aggressive and chaotic entry to Twitter is currently leading to rapid and widespread loss in morale and firm reputation, it is frankly too soon to tell how the moves Musk is making will pan out for Twitter.”

Also available:

Nicole Coomber, associate clinical professor of management, is expert on work-life balance, women in the workplace, leadership and team dynamics.

Gerald Suarez, professor of the practice in systems thinking and design, can comment related to organizational design, systems thinking and total quality management. He previously served as Director of Presidential Quality under the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and has produced recent USA Today advice columns including on ‘Career Switching’ and ‘Career Burnout.’

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