Musk and the controversy: He demands 80 hours from his employees, but he doesn't reach 40 at Tesla.

The fact that Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, and that several of his companies are leaders in their respective fields, is no coincidence. It is well known that Musk demands 100% commitment from both his employees and himself in his projects.

On numerous occasions, it has been heard that the tycoon has even spent periods of his life living in the office with the goal of moving forward with a new project or resolving a crisis that one of his companies may experience, making efforts that no other tycoon or CEO of a multinational usually makes.

Upon his arrival at the White House to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk stated that he and his team worked up to 120 hours a week to implement the necessary cuts, and to put that into perspective, a week totals 168 hours.

However, Musk's political journey (which ended in divorce from President Donald Trump) has affected this devotion to his work , and therefore, a group of Tesla investors sent a letter to the company's board of directors denouncing the magnate's lack of dedication to Tesla in recent months, which has caused the company to go through one of the worst crises in its history.

This group of investors, which includes the American Federation of Teachers, which owns 7.9 million Tesla shares, believes the CEO has been too ambiguous and is therefore demanding concrete measures to ensure good governance and stability at the company.

Shareholders stated that "Mr. Musk's outside activities appear to have taken his time and attention away from actively managing Tesla's operations, as would be expected of any other CEO of a publicly traded company," referring to Musk's admission that he has only been able to devote one day to managing his companies in recent months.

It's striking that the man who required his employees to dedicate 80 hours a week to the company during its most difficult times now admits that he only dedicates a few hours. That's why, in the letter addressed to Tesla's chairwoman, Robyn Denholm, they demand a new compensation plan for Musk that includes a requirement that he dedicate at least 40 hours a week to running the company.

"We just want to make sure he can dedicate enough time to overseeing and, in the case of executives, properly managing the company," Tejal Patel, managing director of SOC Investment Group (one of the signatory investors), told Fortune.

Aside from this, investors are also demanding a succession plan at Tesla for the CEO position. Although they are not asking for the tycoon's head, they are seeking the creation of an emergency figure for take over leadership of Tesla in case Musk is unavailable.