Elon Musk has reportedly told factory employees he will perform the same tasks as injured workers to understand how to create a safer operation.
A screenshot of a letter Musk sent to employees on Thursday was posted to Reddit, where users who claim to work at Tesla confirmed the memo. The note said:
“No words can express how much I care about your safety and wellbeing. It breaks my heart when someone is injured building cars and trying their best to make Tesla successful.
Going forward, I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception. I’m meeting with the safety team every week and would like to meet every injured person as soon as they are well, so that I can understand from them exactly what we need to do to make it better. I will then go down to the production line and perform the same task that they perform.
This is what all managers at Tesla should do as a matter of course. At Tesla, we lead from the front line, not from some safe and comfortable ivory tower. Managers must always put their team’s safety above their own.”
A May report from Worksafe, a worker safety advocacy group, found that Tesla’s Fremont factory employing 10,000 workers falls behind the industry in safety. Among the findings:
Injury rates were 31 percent higher than the U.S. industry average in 2015.
Tesla’s total injury rate for 2016 was 8.1 injuries per 100 workers. (Industry stats for 2016 are not yet available.)
The DART rate at Tesla in 2015 — a measure of the number of days a worker is absent — was double the industry rate in 2015. The DART rate is generally an indicator of the most serious nonfatal injuries.
Tesla has countered the report by saying it has significantly reduced the injury rate this year, but that’s only through the first quarter. Considering the boss is rolling up his sleeves to fix the problem, safety is obviously a priority.
A screenshot of a letter Musk sent to employees on Thursday was posted to Reddit, where users who claim to work at Tesla confirmed the memo. The note said:
“No words can express how much I care about your safety and wellbeing. It breaks my heart when someone is injured building cars and trying their best to make Tesla successful.
Going forward, I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception. I’m meeting with the safety team every week and would like to meet every injured person as soon as they are well, so that I can understand from them exactly what we need to do to make it better. I will then go down to the production line and perform the same task that they perform.
This is what all managers at Tesla should do as a matter of course. At Tesla, we lead from the front line, not from some safe and comfortable ivory tower. Managers must always put their team’s safety above their own.”
A May report from Worksafe, a worker safety advocacy group, found that Tesla’s Fremont factory employing 10,000 workers falls behind the industry in safety. Among the findings:
Injury rates were 31 percent higher than the U.S. industry average in 2015.
Tesla’s total injury rate for 2016 was 8.1 injuries per 100 workers. (Industry stats for 2016 are not yet available.)
The DART rate at Tesla in 2015 — a measure of the number of days a worker is absent — was double the industry rate in 2015. The DART rate is generally an indicator of the most serious nonfatal injuries.
Tesla has countered the report by saying it has significantly reduced the injury rate this year, but that’s only through the first quarter. Considering the boss is rolling up his sleeves to fix the problem, safety is obviously a priority.
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