No one thinks that working at a groundbreaking company is the place to be if you want work/life balance, a regular pat on the head and assurance that you are a special boy or girl, but the way Tesla is treating their employees is appalling. Hiring lots of people at Fremont and then laying them off, eliminating positions and then asking those that remain to do more work or work longer hours, and letting the most senior people go because they are more expensive is bad policy. It will just make the UAW will look more appealing and unionization just makes things worse and costs higher. That is why the foreign OEMs with plants in the US go to great lengths to avoid it. Sleeping on the factory floor is impressive theater but keeping employees motivated and having the best interests of the company at heart requires treating them with respect and giving them a say in how things go. The treatment of the salespeople is equally troublesome. Letting them learn that most of the stores will be closing by social media and then cutting their bonuses rather than just letting them go is seen as underhanded and weak. It will convert people who worked hard for the company to people who don't have good things to say about it. The revolving door management style that has resulted in the loss of too many talented people also speaks to an unsatisfactory work environment. Maybe the best solution would be to make Tesla a " Designed in California " company, concentrate on sales and service in the US - including keeping a sufficient number of stores open, and build the cars at Gigafactories in China.
