Elon Musk’s ‘Hardcore’ Workweeks Don’t Appeal to Younger Workers

Jennifer speaks with Business Insider about the changing future of work.

Just days after Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter, the social-media company laid off half its workforce, and some of its remaining employees are working 84-hour weeks and sleeping at the office to pick up the slack. Americans are divided on what to make of this, and a workplace-culture expert believes the schism reveals a generational divide.

Elon Musk has tweeted that people need to work 80 to 100 hours a week to "change the world," and he's stayed true to this mantra as Twitter's new CEO. But younger workers are unlikely to buy in, said the best-selling author and workplace well-being expert Jennifer Moss.

While older generations worked through the dot-com craze and the rise of Silicon Valley hustle culture, younger workers are changing attitudes around how far you need to go for your job.

"There was this idea of 'this is what you do to make big change happen,'" Moss told Insider of Musk's philosophy. "I think that there was idealism around it. But I think now that's no longer cool or acceptable." There’s currently a significant gap between older and younger workers in many organizations with their approach to work hours, which Jennifer talks about in her keynotes and upcoming book, “Why Are We Here?”.