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Tesla Factory Workers Reveal Pain, Injury and Stress: 'Everything Feels Like the Future But Us' (theguardian.com)
Workers at Tesla's California car factory have been passing out and requiring rides in ambulances, the Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. The conditions at the factory suggest the lengths the company is going to in order to meet its extremely ambitious production goals, and the tension employees feel between their pride in being part of the company and the stress and exhaustion the company's goals are causing them, according to the report. From the article: Ambulances have been called more than 100 times since 2014 for workers experiencing fainting spells, dizziness, seizures, abnormal breathing and chest pains, according to incident reports obtained by the Guardian. Hundreds more were called for injuries and other medical issues. In a phone interview about the conditions at the factory, which employs about 10,000 workers, the Tesla CEO conceded his workers had been "having a hard time, working long hours, and on hard jobs," but said he cared deeply about their health and wellbeing. His company says its factory safety record has significantly improved over the last year. Musk also said that Tesla should not be compared to major US carmakers and that its market capitalization, now more than $50bn, is unwarranted. "I do believe this market cap is higher than we have any right to deserve," he said, pointing out his company produces just 1% of GM's total output. "We're a money-losing company," Musk added. "This is not some situation where, for example, we are just greedy capitalists who decided to skimp on safety in order to have more profits and dividends and that kind of thing. It's just a question of how much money we lose. And how do we survive? How do we not die and have everyone lose their jobs?" The article also sheds light on the kind of manager Musk is. In early 2016, Musk slept on the factory floor in a sleeping bag "to make it the most painful thing possible. I knew people were having a hard time, working long hours, and on hard jobs. I wanted to work harder than they did, to put even more hours in," he was quoted as saying. "Because that's what I think a manager should do."
Robots don't complain.
Let's call it 120 time. In 3.5 years for 10,000 workers.
How far is that from the normal number of times that people in a modest sized city will call for ambulances?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
It's no wonder that California Tesla employees are considering joining the UAW. If you don't treat your employees right one at a time, they're going to ask that you do so all at once.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Exactly! Musk is running a sweatshop with propaganda that the Soviet's would approve of! Oh yes, he has done a PR gesture of sleeping in a bag on the floor, where he has people doing real work at a pace communicated through hierarchy from him, all while he is at best in the way. The proper response is to isolate the causes of these medical issues from the work, redesign the jobs to limit occupational exposures (that's the law in most places, although the US acts otherwise), and employ more people (reducing profit margins) to ensure better quality outcomes
I worked in an Aircraft Depot for the F15 Fighter as a civilian. Many times during periods like the Gulf Wars we would often work 12 hour shifts 7 days a week. They usually tried to limit that to 2 or 3 weeks because eventually it took a toll on people. After two weeks it's like time starts to blur. You make more mistakes and people get very stressed. Several times people almost came to blows on the job. I remember one guy walking down the back of a fighter and he stepped over an air duct and almost went off the side to the concrete floor. I watched helpless as another guy reached up and grabbed his shirt and snatched him back. We all felt energized by the emergency and the overtime was great but I was glad for some time off. Damn I wish I was 30 again. 100 degree summer heat in a hanger climbing over and inside jets. It would kill me now.
Read that again. 200 times for dizziness and nausia, etc. those things typically coming from environmental exposure to toxins and poorly ventilated chemical vapors. Hundreds more for physical medical problems coming from manufacturing work. If you are to compare numbers on a population and activity basis, make sure you understand what they include first. Compare that number not just to civil population in various work, but to the industry cohort. That's what courts do to find managerial negligence, and may be required here.
Well, we've had ambulances called to the office complex that I work from probably three times in the last year. If I look at the map of the parking lot there are about 400 numbered parking spaces, so assuming that some workers carpool or use some other form of transportation I'd guess there are around 450 employees.
So, for my workplace for one year is 3/450 = .667%
By contrast Tesla's workplace with your numbers is (120/3.5)/10000 = .343%
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
The stock is still climbing, so who exactly is he conning? If you bought 5 years ago at 30 bucks a share you'd be selling at 313 a share.
Some of you are fucking morons, you just say things that sound good but don't make any sense when compared to easily obtainable facts.
I actually did work at an old economy factory producing cars in the medium price range. Never heard any stories compared to Tesla. But the unions were strong at our company, maybe that's why.
Signature deleted by lameness filter.
For a few years I was annoyed about the uniform adoration Mr. Musk was getting on Slashdot and in other circles. Then hit-pieces like this one started appearing...
Would the insufferable conditions described in TFA have been described at all — or described using the same terms — if he were still the Progressives' darling for championing "green" causes?
Or has the tone switched, because Musk is a Trump-administration supporter (sort of) — and there is a well-organized smear and boycott campaign against him as a result?
There is a lively discussion on whether or not Musk is a "Trump enabler" — but people, who've already concluded, that he is, will stop at, literally, nothing. Even poisoning the "haters" is becoming a thing — online smears are child's play...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Huh?
So your conception is that you would drive for 9 hours and have two hours of stops.... but you would leave your vehicle unplugged during those stops? And then make two hours of charging stops, charging that you could have done during your already planned stop time?
The thing that makes your conception especially puzzling to me is that people already combine "recharging" and break / meal stops when driving gasoline cars. If they pull off the highway to get a meal, they'll also tend to fill up, or vice versa, since they've already had to take an exit, drive into the nearest town, and stop. The only difference with an EV is that you leave the vehicle connected to the "pump" while you're eating.
You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
It's pretty easy to sleep on a factory floor for the night when you can make up for it by sleeping in your yacht in the Bahamas the next night. There are probably a lot better ways he could have made the point. It's things like this that make me think Musk is really out of touch.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
he's riding high on his pile of money conning investors and duping buyers into his shit cars.
His buyers don't think his cars are shit. Tesla is #1 in customer satisfaction. More Tesla buyers (91%) said they would buy again than any other brand. Porsche is #2 at 84%.
My wife has a Tesla, and she is very happy with it. However, I can't personally vouch for the quality because she won't let me drive it.
Indeed. By GP's logic Ponzi schemes aren't a scam, because they keep going up.
Until they don't.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Flash in the pan? They've been around for 13 years. Their products are rolling around all over the US. Compared to "latest instagram clone that is popular with VCs," I wouldn't call them a flash in the pan.
More important, there's no real connection between startups that are obviously going to go bust and employee abuse. Tesla being new or losing money has nothing to do with it. It's Elon Musk that is the issue. Companies with self-important assholes running shit treat employees like they treat furniture no matter their stage or revenue. I'm guessing Tesla employees are treated better than Amazon employees.
Please tell me you know how to use Google. They're every ~100mi / 150km on almost every interstate in the US (more in more densely populated areas), and this is before the big planned expansion.
Where do you think that chargers are - in the middle of the woods? They're at highway exits, the same sorts of places you find gas stations and restaurants. Generally in the larger cities along the route, where such cities are present.
Click on any charger on the above map. It'll tell you what restaurants (and other things) are around the charger.
Learn to use Google. Period.
Unless you're looking for a vehicle for, say, a trip deep into Canyonlands or the like, it's not a problem. If you're a normal human being who takes interstates to near their destination and then travels less than a couple hundred kilometers off of their turnoff to their destination, there is no problem.
You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
In terms of auto makers, 13 years is nothing. They've only been hyped up after Steve Jobs died because the media wanted a new Steve Jobs (Elon Musk).
The reliability of their vehicles isn't too hot. The cost is high, even when sold at a loss. Their entire design policy involves giving users beta cars the involve absurdities like seats being bricked by wonky firmware upgrades. Their mass-market model is delayed endlessly, and if/when it comes out they will not be able to manufacture it in volume.
They're simply not ready to play with the big boys. I'd compare it to Google thinking they could be an ISP. Yeah, some people are on Google fiber but a lot actually hate it, and Google has abandoned all plans at expansion because they realized they don't have the TRILLIONS it would take to buy all the infrastructure and lobbyists needed to get in on that game nation wide.
Google did have a positive impact by causing competition in areas they entered. Tesla has had a similar positive impact, with manufacturers clamoring to get a line-up of plug-in electric vehicles that have decent range. I'm glad both of them did what they did (just as I'm glad Apple got manufacturers to care about screen resolution ever since they coined the shitty "retina display" term).
But as far as being an actual success in the market? Nope. Not unless Elon and investors are willing to ride out another solid decade of pitiful (or even negative) results, battle against the states that make it illegal to sell Teslas (since they have no dealerships), figure out a way to profit from their sales and from their charging network, etc.
An AC down below called me a hater. I'd love for Tesla to succeed (despite my actual hate for Musk), even if I end up never being interested in their products. They bring competition and (possibly) innovation. I'm not aware of any other consumer electric vehicle with such a practical driving range, for example. I'm just a realist. Established industries are very, very, very hard to break into. Breaking into them by shitting hype and bleeding money rarely works. The establishment can outlast and outlawyer your investors.
look. 13 years of loss. 50 bn market cap.
that is the zenith of overvalued.
at least musk is admitting that it's overvalued and making a loss :D. unlike his last years book shenigans.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.