Entire Supercharging Team Fired?

News yesterday is that the entire 500+ person word-wide SC team has been let go. That is alarming. Why would Elon sack the execs and all the employees of this important part of Tesla's business? Could Tesla be selling the SC network off to a third party? Opinions? Other theories?

 

[mborkow]

Let’s see if “hardcore cost cutter” Elon Musk will now lead by example and cut his own 56 billion compensation package demand by a decent chunk of the savings he’s aiming to achieve.

Or even better - let’s see if the board of directors steps up to his call of hardcore cost cutting.

I think most of that pay package was equity based so doesn’t really impact the revenue stream.

 

[gearchruncher]

I think most of that pay package was equity based so doesn’t really impact the revenue stream.

Gotta love how billionaires have us tricked such that somehow their pay "doesn't impact the revenue stream" so it's OK and it's different.

If that money came out of thin air and cost the company nothing, why not pay every employee this way? I bet the people on the SC team would have accepted $1M a year in equity pay instead of being fired. If Tesla can afford $50B in equity for Musk, they could afford $0.5B in equity for the SC team, right? That's cheaper than $0.075B in actual cash?

This is even more stupid since the SC team worked on revenue producing stuff for Tesla.

 

[mborkow]

Gotta love how billionaires have us tricked such that somehow their pay "doesn't impact the revenue stream" so it's OK and it's different.

If that money came out of thin air and cost the company nothing, why not pay every employee this way? I bet the people on the SC team would have accepted $1M a year in equity pay instead of being fired. If Tesla can afford $50B in equity for Musk, they could afford $0.5B in equity for the SC team, right? That's cheaper than $0.075B in actual cash?

This is even more stupid since the SC team worked on revenue producing stuff for Tesla.

I get quite a bit of my pay this way too. I am granted shares of the company that mature and vest over time. As the company goes up in value so does my comp (as well as the inverse). This is pretty standard for Silicon Valley. The comp still counts against the balance sheet but it’s for the initial value when the grant is issued.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Even if one were to stipulate that is what is going on here (I am not), firing "everyone" makes absolutely no sense in that scenario.

According to latest info from Out of Spec, they didn't fire "everyone". The supercharger maintenance crew is still retained and no one can say for certain that there aren't employees from the new installations still around.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I think most of that pay package was equity based so doesn’t really impact the revenue stream.

Fine… then pay the entire Supercharger team in stock. Apparently that’s free.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

According to latest info from Out of Spec, they didn't fire "everyone". The supercharger maintenance crew is still retained and no one can say for certain that there aren't employees from the new installations still around.

No one can say for certain. lol. Ok. Can’t prove a negative given that Tesla has no PR team and Elon tweets aren’t exactly good as gold. Meanwhile it didn’t take the NYT long to interview a contractor installing superchargers in multiple states and he said nobody of his Tesla contacts are there anymore and his emails bounce back…

 

[terranx]

Have to wonder how the employees who are still around are reacting. I know if I were in their position, I'd be interviewing elsewhere.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

Have to wonder how the employees who are still around are reacting. I know if I were in their position, I'd be interviewing elsewhere.

And good luck with “re-hiring”. lol. Fool me once, fool me twice.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Nobody is ignoring Elon saying that they are still working on new sites. It's been brought up over and over.

It's that we're skeptical of that claim, given the complete lack of resources to do it, the fact that he's generally wrong when he tweets even on things that should already be an absolute (no, not every USA car got a free FSD trial), and because if he's so impulsive and uncommitted to SC's that he will fire the whole team over a tiff with Tinucci, then there is no way 6 hours later he has more than a "plan" to keep building out "critical" sites. He'll move on to the next shiny object (apparently that's going back to harassing "illegals" on twitter) and completely forget about superchargers, at least until the media starts highlighting some new person as being the savior of public DC fast charging and then he'll rage at that for a while.

Elon's had a "plan" for a lot of things, many of them never came true, so forgive us if we're not confident this time. And if his "plan" is to "hire back" people, then he's just an human being and an even worse manager.

Well, that's what I mean by disregard completely, it seems people here don't believe it at all. And as per the video posted up thread he didn't fire everyone. The people maintaining the stations are still all around and it's not clear if even the entire new installations team is gone or if a subset is gone. I read elsewhere it started first with the south/eastern supercharger team and then reached HQ, so given maintenance didn't get fired, it's possible some HQ and regional employees are still around.

This whole thing reminds me a lot of Elon's move with Twitter. He fired a vast majority of people and kept only a skeleton crew and it didn't end up imploding, so perhaps he's using a similar strategy. Of course in that case, the whole tech industry was doing layoffs so there was no lack of replacements, but the same may not necessarily apply here.

Still a lot of information missing however as to the true scope.

 

[stopcrazypp]

No one can say for certain. lol. Ok. Can’t prove a negative given that Tesla has no PR team and Elon tweets aren’t exactly good as gold. Meanwhile it didn’t take the NYT long to interview a contractor installing superchargers in multiple states and he said nobody of his Tesla contacts are there anymore and his emails bounce back…

Well that didn't stop the media and people from saying "everyone" was fired, when that is false according to out of spec (given maintenance crew was retained).

 

[texas_star_TM3]

Well that didn't stop the media and people from saying "everyone" was fired, when that is false according to out of spec (given maintenance crew was retained).

I’m sure the maintenance crew was never employed at HQ and part of the Supercharger team. So yeah. Hooooray …. Broken chargers will still be getting fixed…

 

[stopcrazypp]

I’m sure the maintenance crew was never employed at HQ and part of the Supercharger team. So yeah. Hooooray …. Broken chargers will still be getting fixed…

I guess we need to define what is meant by "supercharger team"? Is it only the team that does new installs? Of the new installs does it include the people that manufacture and design the supercharger equipment? Are we excluding the employees that monitor and maintain the sites? The initial reports suggested everyone was fired, not just the new installation guys. That is a much bigger deal for obvious reasons.

Also should mention even if a subset was fired, it wouldn't be surprising for a regional utility to lose all contacts especially if that utility is in the south or eastern region (since according to post upthread, the entire south/eastern new installations team got the axe in the first round).

Entire Supercharging Team Fired?

News yesterday is that the entire 500+ person word-wide SC team has been let go. That is alarming. Why would Elon sack the execs and all the employees of this important part of Tesla's business? Could Tesla be selling the SC network off to a third party? Opinions? Other theories?

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[mborkow]

Fine… then pay the entire Supercharger team in stock. Apparently that’s free.

Don’t be obtuse: most people can’t get afford to live on a deferred income stream that may not materialize and if it does is years away; we have mortgages and car payments we need to make now. But if you look at the (now rescinded) pay package Elon had, it was all stock grants based on achieving certain metrics (that the company did hit). It was not salary or cash bonus.

 

[dramsey]

This is the best answer in the thread. This is totally what Musk and Tesla are planning to do. Everyone is reacting emotionally but you need to step back and see it from this perspective.

Why should we step back and see it from this perspective? We don't know this is what Tesla is planning. It's pure speculation.

 

[gearchruncher]

Well that didn't stop the media and people from saying "everyone" was fired, when that is false according to out of spec (given maintenance crew was retained).

Because without a PR team, we know one thing, which is that Musk's email literally said:

Mr. Musk said he would dissolve the “entire group of approximately 500 people” that had worked on building new Supercharger stations. In that message, he said the company would finish stations under construction and build some new ones “where critical.”

He used the words "entire group" and without more context, it's very hard to know.

I mean, one tweet from Elon could clear this all up, right? Why is he not if there's so much misinformation from the Media that he hates and he has his own platform? I mean, this was all planned so he knows exactly what is happening, right?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Because without a PR team, we know one thing, which is that Musk's email literally said:



He used the words "entire group" and without more context, it's very hard to know.

I mean, one tweet from Elon could clear this all up, right? Why is he not if there's so much misinformation from the Media that he hates and he has his own platform? I mean, this was all planned so he knows exactly what is happening, right?

It's paraphrasing and even so it's modified by saying "that had worked on building new Supercharger stations". That's not "everyone" even by that statement, unless you exclude all the people in the supercharger team that was not part of new installations.

That's why I tend to favor looking at the direct source instead of paraphrasing, given the meaning can change significantly.

Not having a PR team doesn't excuse the telephone game that frequently happens in the media.

 

[cptnslo]

I’m gunna leave this here since it’s not only Tesla laying off “core” employees

Google lays off hundreds of 'Core' employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico — CNBC

Google is laying off more employees and hiring for their roles outside of the U.S.

apple.news

 

[mborkow]

I’m gunna leave this here since it’s not only Tesla laying off “core” employees

Google lays off hundreds of 'Core' employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico — CNBC

Google is laying off more employees and hiring for their roles outside of the U.S.

apple.news

Every tech company (including my own which laid off 10% just a few months ago including 5 pretty good friends) is laying off 1000s of employees. What Tesla did here is different; they eliminated an entire functional org. They didn’t just cut the fat…they sliced off quite a bit of muscle and bone too.

 

[Milan Djabirov]

I think most of that pay package was equity based so doesn’t really impact the revenue stream.

Equity is not “free”. If cost cutting is meant to increase shareholder value by balancing cash flows, granting hefty equity compensation dilutes and reduces it. There’s a fine balance point - to motivate and align executive’s interests you want to reward equity but beyond a certain point that dilutes and erodes value for other shareholders. So yes, while that equity comp does not affect current liquidity, it very much affects share value for Tesla investors. Musk has a duty to maximize shareholder value - presumably the layoffs are supposed to do that by propping the company’s cash flow balance. He could also do that by giving up on some of that equity reward. As others have pointed out, if equity was free they’d be donating it out as severance.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Equity is not “free”. If cost cutting is meant to increase shareholder value by balancing cash flows, granting hefty equity compensation dilutes and reduces it. There’s a fine balance point - to motivate and align executive’s interests you want to reward equity but beyond a certain point that dilutes and erodes value for other shareholders. So yes, while that equity comp does not affect current liquidity, it very much affects share value for Tesla investors. Musk has a duty to maximize shareholder value - presumably the layoffs are supposed to do that by propping the company’s cash flow balance. He could also do that by giving up on some of that equity reward. As others have pointed out, if equity was free they’d be donating it out as severance.

But shareholders don't seem to care as much about equity compensation. They care about actual profit, which layoffs help improve, but reducing equity compensation doesn't.