Is Elon thinking of REHIRING some of the fired SuperCharging folks

[mborkow]

What do you disagree with @mborkow ? I said there are pros and cons to Musk's approach.

“Sometimes, the most efficient way of truly determining who the actual productive contributors are, is to let everyone go.”
That’s an absurd statement. If management (Elon) can’t do any better than “fire everyone” then his management and its lack of metrics is the problem.

 

[DRYICE69]

This thread is hilarious. Didnt know there were so many successful business people on this site more qualified to make staffing decisions than Elon.

 

[DrChaos]

Disagree.

Sometimes, the most efficient way of truly determining who the actual productive contributors are, is to let everyone go. Supervisors obfuscate.

Don't get me wrong...once you let them go (and then find out who the actual contributors are)

How does that "find out who the actual contributors are" work

 

[Joey D]

How does that "find out who the actual contributors are" work

Because you find out what the actual necessary tasks / tough issues are, because they actually need to get done. All those tasks / items that people claim are necessary, but actually are not (or can easily be absorbed by 1/10 of a person), do not bubble up to the top as "emergencies."

It's trivial to determine "who used to do this", because you have email trails, slack, etc.

You would be amazed at the amount of *sugar* that people "used to do"....just do not really need to be done.

 

[Joey D]

This thread is hilarious. Didnt know there were so many successful business people on this site more qualified to make staffing decisions than Elon.

Right? And I'm not even saying that Musk's approach doesn't have its own risks and drawbacks. It may in fact ultimately be the wrong approach (time will tell).

But of one thing I'm certain: Elon has infinitely more knowledge about the staff / structure at Tesla (what is working, what is not...what has been tried, what has not been), and what his mission is, than we do.

I challenge anyone to tell me that technically, X/Twitter isn't running better now and with more features, after he let go of what 80% of the twitter work force?! (And yes, re-hired some key people)?

Car manufacturing is of course different than a pure software service....but we're also talking about 10-15% staffing cuts overall (not 80% like twitter).

 

[Midnightsun]

Nobody except Elon knows why this happened but I am sure his decision is warranted. As an employer I can tell you there is a tendency to go from a very productive unit/person to what I call driftwood as time passes. Sometimes its better to start fresh and put the excitement/performance back where it once was. New people and new ideas alway makes for a better overall outcome plus efficiency is always improved. That being said, I do have employees with over 35 years of dedicated service working for me and my turnover is almost non existant.

 

[FastEddieB]

Sometimes its better to start fresh and put the excitement/performance back where it once was. New people and new ideas alway makes for a better overall outcome plus efficiency is always improved.

Maybe. Maybe not.

But those new hires would likely know how their predecessors were let go. I don’t know how excited or motivated they might be knowing they could be fired en masse regardless of their individual performance and/or value to the company. Coming to work every day knowing you’re one impulsive email away from unemployment can’t be good for morale overall.

 

[HankE-LA]

Nobody except Elon knows why this happened but I am sure his decision is warranted. As an employer I can tell you there is a tendency to go from a very productive unit/person to what I call driftwood as time passes. Sometimes its better to start fresh and put the excitement/performance back where it once was. New people and new ideas alway makes for a better overall outcome plus efficiency is always improved. That being said, I do have employees with over 35 years of dedicated service working for me and my turnover is almost non existant.

Once I had a supervisor who was completely incompetent at his job. I know how he got his slot but it’s irrelevant to the situation. We on his crew tried our best to steer him in the right direction but his attitude of I’m the boss and I know better derailed our attempts. There was an incident that resulted in expensive property damage but luckily no injuries.

Upper management came in and did an honest and thorough investigation. End result was the supervisor’s decision was the root cause of the incident and others on the crew blindly followed his lead and should have known better. What did upper management do?

They fired all of us. Me included. As we were in a room waiting for HR to process us out when management came in and called out four of us. Short story we had our jobs back and were tasked to right the ship. We identified the dead wood. We reiterated the toxic culture and who was responsible. As a result the supervisor and three others were terminated. The other 17 or so got to keep our jobs. However a few got letters of reprimand. No big as management once told me that if you didn’t get a letter in your file once every seven years it may tag you as dead wood. I’ve had my share.

Retired from that company with 40 years of service. That supervisor that got fired? I eventually got his job. Yes it’s a scorched earth tactic that I still don’t agree with but in extreme situations it’s the best tactic. We’ll probably never know what went on behind the scenes at Tesla and honestly we don’t need to know. Us as consumers and investors of the Tesla product line need to focus on where the company is going forward. I’m confident that six months from now we’ll forget this ever happened.

 

[Midnightsun]

Once I had a supervisor who was completely incompetent at his job.

I tell my people if they are ever faced with something they do not agree with tell the Supervisor/person in charge in no uncertain manner you do not agree with their decision and better yet if it is really bad then write a note saying so and have him sign it. 95% of the time the person will change their tune. Just because you have a title does not mean you know best all the time.

 

[phxazcraig]

I once got laid of from my IT job just before Christmas. I was a 'Novell guy', and they only had upcoming work for Microsoft guys so I got laid off.

24 hours later I got a call that they had found work for me, and I wasn't laid off, and have a nice Christmas.

But that 24 hour delay was fatal to them. By then I had decided to start my own business. After a day I was a little disappointed that they didn't lay me off as I would have had 2 weeks severance pay coming.

After 2-3 weeks I turned in my laptop and went out to buy my own. The next day I was working for myself, and that year I billed $10,000/mo every month, something my employer had failed to do for 5 years.

 

[EfficientWatts]

Once I had a supervisor who was completely incompetent at his job. I know how he got his slot but it’s irrelevant to the situation. We on his crew tried our best to steer him in the right direction but his attitude of I’m the boss and I know better derailed our attempts. There was an incident that resulted in expensive property damage but luckily no injuries.

Upper management came in and did an honest and thorough investigation. End result was the supervisor’s decision was the root cause of the incident and others on the crew blindly followed his lead and should have known better. What did upper management do?

They fired all of us. Me included. As we were in a room waiting for HR to process us out when management came in and called out four of us. Short story we had our jobs back and were tasked to right the ship. We identified the dead wood. We reiterated the toxic culture and who was responsible. As a result the supervisor and three others were terminated. The other 17 or so got to keep our jobs. However a few got letters of reprimand. No big as management once told me that if you didn’t get a letter in your file once every seven years it may tag you as dead wood. I’ve had my share.

Retired from that company with 40 years of service. That supervisor that got fired? I eventually got his job. Yes it’s a scorched earth tactic that I still don’t agree with but in extreme situations it’s the best tactic. We’ll probably never know what went on behind the scenes at Tesla and honestly we don’t need to know. Us as consumers and investors of the Tesla product line need to focus on where the company is going forward. I’m confident that six months from now we’ll forget this ever happened.

The big difference here is that we have a CEO who apparently fired the whole department at his whim due to a disagreement with the leader, not because of pure incompetence and actual damage to the company. The parallel situations people in this thread here are using to trying to justify Elon's actions are completely different, and are not good examples to show why Elon was smart.

There are better ways to deal with driftwood and rot than nuking the entire ship.

 

[CyberGus]

I guess it's time to bring in the consultants

 

[mborkow]

I guess it's time to bring in the consultants

If you have worked in Silicon Valley, you know that movie is less parody than documentary. I *love* that movie

 

[gtae07]

If you have worked in Silicon Valley, you know that movie is less parody than documentary. I *love* that movie

It's a documentary in stodgy old fields like aerospace, too. We make it required viewing for our interns...

The panicked "OMG our quarterly numbers are in jeopardy!" layoffs are almost inevitably the "cut XX% tomorrow!" kind. We've been through it. Somehow I survived, but the only reason I'm still there when I wanted to leave after that mess is geographic--I didn't want to move further from our families, and the only jobs closer to them were dragging their feet with hiring. By the time they got around to it we were priced out of housing.

 

[mborkow]

It's a documentary in stodgy old fields like aerospace, too. We make it required viewing for our interns...

The panicked "OMG our quarterly numbers are in jeopardy!" layoffs are almost inevitably the "cut XX% tomorrow!" kind. We've been through it. Somehow I survived, but the only reason I'm still there when I wanted to leave after that mess is geographic--I didn't want to move further from our families, and the only jobs closer to them were dragging their feet with hiring. By the time they got around to it we were priced out of housing.

The day we gravity tested our printer-fax machine in the parking lot was glorious…fun times!

 

[DblOSmith]

It's amazing that people who give the benefit of the doubt are "living in fantasy land"... but the people who jump to it being chaotic and reckless and he deserves to be fired... aren't living in fantasy. Both sides are just guessing as no one has met him, no one knows what's in his brain, no one has all the data from his company, has details on his plan and there are positives and negatives for both sides.

I honestly wish both sides would just STFU, be patient, and wait to see what happens, then judge.

 

[CyberGus]

I honestly wish both sides would just STFU, be patient, and wait to see what happens, then judge.

Welcome to the internet! You must be new here.

 

[DblOSmith]

Welcome to the internet! You must be new here.

I've come here from innocent cat video land. Apparently, it's not the same here and they won't take me back.

 

[Tam]

That was fast:

Tesla begins to rebuild Supercharger team with former executive

 

[RayK]

That was fast:

Tesla begins to rebuild Supercharger team with former executive

So maybe this was Elon's plan all along.... fire everybody and then see who is desperate / loyal enough to return to the fold. What we will probably never know is if these returnees are coming back to the same salary (or lower?) of if they managed to get compensated (financially or otherwise) for their decision.

Seems like this guy, Max De Zegher, kept the same job as he had before and didn't improve his position on the org chart.