We honestly don't know if he did or did not inform this team that he wanted everyone laid off.
I mean, we do though.
You don't tell a manager "I'm firing everyone including you" then wait days, then fire that team. You'd just fire the team in the first place.
Nor is that what happened according to multiple reports including those on the team.
What happened is Elon told managers to lay off some amount of their staff-- it doesn't matter if it's exactly 10%, or 50%... we KNOW it's less than 100% or the team would've been out the door on the original layoff day.
The manager then refused to do whatever amount Elon wanted.
So Elon fired the manager and 100% of those under that manager. Then sent out an email suggesting this was an example to others.
Now it's being reported Tesla is trying to rehire some of them. Including at least one report in here from someone who knows an impacted employee- and said employee is debating if they WANT to return somewhere employees are treated that way. I've heard the same thing from another employee as well though it's second hand (like via a spouse so reliable second hand but still).
I know a lot of folks only remember Machiavelli saying it's better to be feared as a ruler--- but what he actually advised in Chapter XVII was that it is best to be
both loved and feared. Only when that ideal is not possible, such as when gratitude dissolves during threats to survival, did Machiavelli suggest fear is a more reliable way to inspire discipline than bonds of love.
If this had happened in 2018 with Tesla facing immediate existential crisis I'd be a lot more open to the idea things were in that second state.
Today Tesla has north of 25 billion in cash sitting around. If being decent to the rank and file workers on the team meant it took a few more days to replace the manager and fire the # of folks you actually intended to instead of firing EVERYONE then hoping the ones you actually need are willing to overlook you doing that to them and come back, that's something Tesla could easily afford to do.
Rich Otto, formerly head of product launches at Tesla- actually resigned last week, specifically citing the impact of layoffs on morale. It's a thing.
Elon may not care... and there might yet be enough brilliant folks waiting in the wings to just glom in for anyone who decides NOT to return to a company that fired them to punish someone else... but it seems an entirely unneeded situation.
Do we know for sure that's how it went down?
I mean, I don't have recordings of conversations-- but it's now been reported as confirmed by multiple employees that's how it went down. And seems reinforced by soon after Elon having emailed internally "Hopefully, these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard-core about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so."
He wanted to make an example of an exec who wasn't following his orders to lay off some non-100% amount of their team. By executing the entire organization under that manager. Which they're now asking at least some folks to come back from.
We don't know that for sure. They could have a deal with a finance company to split the costs of the interest rate discount.
Yeah and unfortunately without any detail it'd be hard to model the financial cost to Tesla for offering this- compared to MSRP or inventory discounts which are (relatively) easy to model.
This thread has become useless/s
Tesla released Cyberhammer to wider audience and not a peep here . Now it’s out of stock. How am I supposed to get one now ??
In the past , we were always alerted by esteemed posters when something this monumental happened . Now it’s all about FSD and autonomy /S
So you're saying you'd like to have been informed when it was... Hammer time?