Musk’s role at the White HouseDOGE officehas made Tesla investors want their CEO back.

But he’s far from the first chief executive to go AWOL.

“And yet, it’s almost never talked about.”

The “consequences of media-induced superstar status for shareholders are negative,” the study concluded.

Even at smaller firms, leaders' attention can become easily diverted.

This absenteeism can turn “toxic,” McHale says.

“It is very destructive for employees and systems.

It minimizes the importance of social relationships with our leaders.”

Apaperfrom 2010 found that “laissez-faire” leadership was more prevalent than other types of destructive leadership.

And a recently updatedpaperfound that companies whose CEOs worked remotely were more likely to underperform and have lower valuations.

But Jobs was a largely hands-off manager at Pixar, delegating tasks to other execs.

Twitter had always been difficult to monetize and effectively moderate, and Dorsey stepped down in 2021.

But much as there’s no comparison for Tesla’s plunge in value, Musk himself is incomparable.

But Tesla stock roared back through the rest of 2023.

Perhaps he could bring the outsider energy needed to pare down bureaucracyandkeep his companies humming at the same time.

So far, DOGE has fired thousands of workers, canceled lifesaving aid, and producedall-around chaos.

That’s part of Tesla’s problem.

With Musk, the absenteeism isn’t so silent.

Some founders start companies with an entrepreneurial spirit but find themselves bored with the day-to-day tasks of a CEO.

“That bottleneck leads to resentment, poor decision-making, slower response times, and the culture gets affected.

So much can start going haywire when that happens.”

It was a bad week.

Tesla lost $127 billion in market cap in one day.

Trump just bought a Tesla with hopes of boosting the car’s popularity.

He’ll have to buy quite a few more to make up for Tesla’s losses.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Musk may have the stamina to hold out.

The others may not.

Amanda Hooveris a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry.

She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

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