A former X employee has offered a rare glimpse into billionaire CEO Elon Musk's intense daily routine, revealing how the tech mogul manages his time across multiple companies.
Chris Bakke, who reported directly to Musk for over two years, described a schedule that ran late into the night and barely gave him time to rest.
He responded to US Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez's tweet that states, "Any school teacher has more work ethic in their pinky finger than Elon Musk has in his entire body."
Defending Musk, Bakke shared that his day typically began with long hours at Tesla, where he spent roughly 10 hours working with the team. Then he would hold X's product meetings in the evening, usually around 5 or 6 pm.
Bakke said that his one-on-one check-ins, initially scheduled for 10 pm, were regularly pushed to 11 pm, midnight, or even 1 am.
"Usually around 2 am, he'd go take a nap for a couple hours in the office and then repeat the same schedule again the next day with a different set of companies, 7 days a week," he wrote on X.
Musk has long been known for his extreme work ethic, and he often talks about how working longer hours can lead to greater results.
During a 2014 commencement speech at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, Musk cited an example, "If somebody else is working 50 hours [per week] and you're working 100, you'll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company."
Earlier this year, the debate over long work hours went global when Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy suggested that young professionals should work 70 hours a week, and L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan proposed a 90-hour workweek.
The conversation took an even bolder turn when Elon Musk weighed in, suggesting a 120-hour workweek. He claimed that at DOGE, employees follow a tough schedule, working 17 hours a day, seven days a week, or even 24-hour shifts for five days straight.
