Supercharger team sacked?

[Burley]

I don't think anyone was questioning the veracity of statements that these people have been let go. It's the leap from that to, "Tesla is halting the further expansion of the supercharger network for the foreseeable future" type of predictions that was questioned. Or at least I think that was it.

At least one comment said it was just another hit piece like the Reuter's one about Model 2... Given that the link I posted was to the senior site acquisition manager, its not beyond the realms of possibility that losing folk like that will impact network expansion.

I've long been a supporter of Tesla and the long-term vision, but there do seem to be some odd decisions happening at the moment. I'm not an investor (other than sinking a huge chunk of my own money into buying a car & a Powerwall) but on the face of it, a large number of people were made redundant last week whilst the CEO was pushing for a $55bn bonus. He might be owed that, but that's enough to pay the salaries of those sacked workers for the rest of their working lives... Then the senior SuC team has been let go by email overnight. Given that the SuC network really is Tesla's big advantage over other brands, it is a concern. Opening it up more widely certain fits the long-term objective of transitioning to low carbon transport, but it also compromises one of the key advantages of ownership.

 

[tomorrowman]

I don't think it's the best car in the world. I still prefer driving my compact SUV over our Model 3. Autopilot is made more useless with each update and we can't turn the windshield wipers off. I don't like how Musk treats his employees and I don't agree with his political views. I don't feel sorry for him because he may or may not have a mental health issue. How am I cutting off my nose to spite my face when I'm not in love with Tesla products. Although, I do want to see Tesla succeed and I hope things turn around for the EV industry as a whole.

Your statement was 'I won't but another Tesla with Musk at the Helm'.

No mention of the fact you think the car is *sugar*.

With regards Elon's politics a) I'm not American and b) the US political system is so broken/polarised I just let them get on with it

How he treats his employees. I've had the joys of working for a US company and experienced the annual cull, it's what they do.

Don't forget Tesla is a company of well over 100,000 employees worldwide who are contributing greatly to the transition to a sustainable transport future. Feel free not to hate on them all because you think Elon is a prick.

 

[PassingLane]

Your statement was 'I won't but another Tesla with Musk at the Helm'.

No mention of the fact you think the car is *sugar*.

With regards Elon's politics a) I'm not American and b) the US political system is so broken/polarised I just let them get on with it

How he treats his employees. I've had the joys of working for a US company and experienced the annual cull, it's what they do.

Don't forget Tesla is a company of well over 100,000 employees worldwide who are contributing greatly to the transition to a sustainable transport future. Feel free not to hate on them all because you think Elon is a prick.

I don't that them. Why do you say that? I don't even hate Musk.

 

[PassingLane]

If you made all of your purchasing decisions based on whether or not you don't like the CEOs politics, etc., you would never buy anything. Most CEOs are right wing (they just don't advertise it like Musk does).
Look up Henry Ford if you want an eye-opener.

Is Henry still making cars? Talk about a long-living CEO.

 

[MD70]

The guys losing it. Supercharging is what made EVs viable. Tesla invested in this for years and gradually built the best network.
Now is the time to press the advantage but the leader seems to have other ideas.

 

[Masklin]

“…who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” to resign.’

I assume Musk will be falling on his own sword imminently?

 

[PassingLane]

“…who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” to resign.’

I assume Musk will be falling on his own sword imminently?

That was my first thought too.

 

[KennethS]

Steve Jobs by all accounts was an a'hole. And a visionary.

I've no idea what the mass layoffs of SC staff means, but I prefer not to jump to conclusions until more is known.

 

[FastLaneJB]

To some degree yes on the expendable point. For many decades GE was amongst the best performing conglomerates in the world. The CEO for much of that period was Jack Welch, also known as "Neutron Jack". He implemented a requirement for all line managers that every year they had to fire not less than 10% of their workforce. They could hire to fill vacancies but were forced to annually chop at least 10% of staff. His view was momentum among employees caused bloat and by forcing staff cuts the lowest performers would be chosen to be ousted. It also resulted in an annual reassessment in each business line of needed headcount. Not nice, albeit effective by some measures, and an indication of the corporate mindset of some. I don't think that would ever be acceptable in other countries (nor even in the USA now).

That process still goes on in a lot of companies, especially in Big Tech. Just look up Amazon and PIP.

The number varies but they'll put around 6% of employees on a Personal Improvement Plan each year globally, you almost never get out of it and then their fire you are a URA, Unregrettable Attrition. Gets marked on your file and you cannot be re-employed by Amazon for 5 years but in reality probably never. Add in hiring freezes and the amount they've been laying off is higher than what is publicly communicated as some of it is based on this approach that happens every year.

 

[FastLaneJB]

At least one comment said it was just another hit piece like the Reuter's one about Model 2... Given that the link I posted was to the senior site acquisition manager, its not beyond the realms of possibility that losing folk like that will impact network expansion.

I've long been a supporter of Tesla and the long-term vision, but there do seem to be some odd decisions happening at the moment. I'm not an investor (other than sinking a huge chunk of my own money into buying a car & a Powerwall) but on the face of it, a large number of people were made redundant last week whilst the CEO was pushing for a $55bn bonus. He might be owed that, but that's enough to pay the salaries of those sacked workers for the rest of their working lives... Then the senior SuC team has been let go by email overnight. Given that the SuC network really is Tesla's big advantage over other brands, it is a concern. Opening it up more widely certain fits the long-term objective of transitioning to low carbon transport, but it also compromises one of the key advantages of ownership.

No one deserves a pay packet that large. It's almost like he wants Tesla to pay him back the money he spent on Twitter with a good few billion added on top.

I get people at the top deserve a good and fair reward and running a company like Tesla it should be larger than most CEO's but how can anyone in their right mind think that package needs to be in the billions, let alone $55b. The world is an utter mess with such levels of bad wealth distribution.

 

[browellm]

Like @tomorrowman said. Wait and see. Elon sacked 90% of Twitter and while it was extreme and encountered a few minor quirks, it's still running fine (on a technical standpoint).

Sorry, that's your benchmark for fine is it? Incredible.

 

[KennethS]

I know you know but it is share options and he took zero salary. He was to receive awards based on the achievement of milestones and most everyone at the time the plan was approved and adopted thought it was insane to think he would achieve the goals. All shareholders benefited greatly financially in appreciation in stock value. The headline figure is a disgustingly large number but it is not cash. Is he hoping to claw back some of the stake he chose to sell to pursue other ventures? Likely yes but he had a legitimate expectation that the option plan would be complied with.

 

[FastLaneJB]

I know you know but it is share options and he took zero salary. He was to receive awards based on the achievement of milestones and most everyone at the time the plan was approved and adopted thought it was insane to think he would achieve the goals. All shareholders benefited greatly financially in appreciation in stock value. The headline figure is a disgustingly large number but it is not cash. Is he hoping to claw back some of the stake he chose to sell to pursue other ventures? Likely yes but he had a legitimate expectation that the option plan would be complied with.

I do understand not cash but it still seems excessively large if you ask me. Is it a case that he won't get out of bed and help Tesla for a small $10 billion for instance? It's still more money than anyone should be able to spend in their lifetime. It shouldn't be there to help him buy companies like Twitter.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Guess I should stop bothering with Tesla | Supercharger Voting for now...

Like @tomorrowman said. Wait and see. Elon sacked 90% of Twitter and while it was extreme and encountered a few minor quirks, it's still running fine (on a technical standpoint).

If the SC network goes from state of the art to utter trash in a year from now, without any new locations and availability rates in freefall, then we'll know it was a terrible call and react accordingly with our wallets...

My investor opinion is that Elon knows that the pure EV sales figures dynamic in the next quarters & SC network cannot justify the current valuation. And instead of fighting the industry trend he's embracing it so he's now full blown on AI / FSD.
Everything else is seen as a cost center and will be trimmed down.
He wants to transition Tesla from an EV company that had an FSD edge to a pure AI/FSD/robotaxi (circle you preferred option) vendor, that still sells some EVs on the side.

This might well be right but that car business, charging and energy storage business is what provides them with the capital to also be an AI / FSD / Robotic company.

It’s highly likely that Tesla will decline with car sales vs the sheer amount of competition but to kick it to the side feels the wrong approach. They also need those cars as they supply them with the data needed to train their FSD in the first place. Also once you have FSD and no other company seems close, that is a massive sales advantage for your cars.

The cars can still do well, just don’t think he’ll get to his 20 million a year goal he wanted.

 

[KennethS]

I do understand not cash but it still seems excessively large if you ask me. Is it a case that he won't get out of bed and help Tesla for a small $10 billion for instance? It's still more money than anyone should be able to spend in their lifetime. It shouldn't be there to help him buy companies like Twitter.

Let's take Twitter out of this which seems an extremely emotive issue and a red herring on the topic of his share option award.

Not sure if you watch Shark Tank or Dragon's Den but how much equity do the shark's/dragon's take when they do a deal (and on merely a promise of boosting the company value and before achieving any result or even if no result in achieved)? 30% or more?

The share value of Tesla increased more than tenfold during the period (including the recent share price declines). In that context and on the basis that he only achieved the option awards after the results were obtained, it doesn't seem outrageous to me. The value is a huge number but so is the company value appreciation. He has made a lot of people seriously wealthy.

On a side but related note, how do you feel about the lawyers in the case seeking $6 billion, estimated to imply an hourly rate of $288,000? So those lawyers thought Elon's pay was outrageous but want $6 billion. I wonder if you multiply that hourly rate by the number of hours Elon worked without any pay what number it comes up to? That to me is unbridled greed.

 

[WllXM]

Sorry, that's your benchmark for fine is it? Incredible.

I get the point but nevertheless if you were to sack 90% of a company’s workforce I doubt many would manage to keep the lights on and the servers running…

If fast forward a couple months, on a dark winter night, I navigate to a supercharger only to find that a fuse has blown and I’m stranded miles away from civilisation then of course it will have been a terrible call.

 

[browellm]

I get the point but nevertheless if you were to sack 90% of a company’s workforce I doubt many would manage to keep the lights on and the servers running…

Christ on a cross-channel ferry. They're servers. They don't need taking for walks or feeding like Tamagotchi.

They've binned off almost the entire moderation team, encouraged a complete bin-fire culture, overturning bans from some of the worst filth on earth. He's been at the helm of one of the worst rebrands in history. Advertisers have left in droves and the company is worth a fraction of the value paid.

But you can still log in so that's good.

 

[tomorrowman]

Rage Thread

Let it all out folks, you'll feel so much better for it in the end.

Positively cathartic, even if I do say so myself.

Now what was this thread about originally ? Ah yes the collapse of the supercharger network.

That would be a shame as it's one of the key reasons I purchased my model 3 in 2019. Together with it's ease of use software (ignoring the oh so divisive automatic wipers) it has been an absolute breeze to travel around the country without worrying about range anxiety or planning anything etc etc.

Thank god every other EV manufacturer has sorted that out now.

 

[mspohr]

Let's take Twitter out of this which seems an extremely emotive issue and a red herring on the topic of his share option award.

Actually, Twitter is the point.
Having too much money led Elon to buy Twitter and go on a "free speech" crusade (actually just free speech for the right wing folks).
Having too much money led Elon to believe that he would be as good at social media as he was at engineering.
Having too much money led Elon to distraction from his mission to transition the world to sustainable energy.
$55 billion is too much money for anyone to handle responsibly.

 

[tomorrowman]

Look at the title of the thread.

Feel free to start a 'Elon is a W@nker' thread. It's obviously needed

Actually, Twitter is the point.
Having too much money led Elon to buy Twitter and go on a "free speech" crusade (actually just free speech for the right wing folks).
Having too much money led Elon to believe that he would be as good at social media as he was at engineering.
Having too much money led Elon to distraction from his mission to transition the world to sustainable energy.
$55 billion is too much money for anyone to handle responsibly.