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Tesla Employees Detail How They Were Fired, Claim Dismissals Were Not Performance Related (cnbc.com)

New submitter joshtops shares a CNBC report: Tesla is trying to disguise layoffs by calling the widespread terminations performance related, allege several current and former employees. On Friday, the San Jose Mercury News first reported that Tesla had dismissed an estimated 400 to 700 employees. That number represents between 1 and 2 percent of its entire workforce. But one former employee, citing internal information shared by a manager, said the total number fired is higher than 700 at this point. Most of the people let go from Tesla so far have been from its motors business, said people familiar with the matter. They were not from other initiatives like Tesla Powerwall, which is helping restore electricity to the residents of Puerto Rico now. The mass firings, which affected Tesla employees across the U.S., had begun by the weekend of Oct. 7 and continued even after the initial news report, sources said. Among those whose jobs were terminated in this phase, some were given severance packages quickly while others are still waiting on separation agreements. Some terminated employees told CNBC they were informed via email or a phone call "without warning," and told not to come into work the next day. The company also dismissed other employees without specifying a given performance issue, according to these people. "Seems like performance has nothing to do with it," one Tesla employee told CNBC under the condition of anonymity. "Those terminated were generally the highest paid in their position," this person said, suggesting that the firings were driven by cost-cutting. That assessment was echoed by several others, including three employees fired from Tesla during this latest wave.

16 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bummer by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've yet to meet an underperformer who admitted that was why they were terminated. Not saying these people were, just something that I keep in mind.

  2. All employees think they perform above-average by geschbacher79 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Illusory superiority is something we probably all have mentally: We all think we're above average employees, when obviously that's impossible.

    One thing I've noticed working at a few major companies is that nobody ever really gets bad performance reviews: Instead, they all range from satisfactory to excellent. But in reality, those who get satisfactory are getting bad reviews, it's just more polite to NOT say "you stink".

  3. Re:Bummer by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, if 2% of Tesla's workforce was so bad it needed firing all at once, I'd say it's the management that was underperforming.

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  4. Key line by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Those terminated were generally the highest paid in their position," this person said, suggesting that the firings were driven by cost-cutting.

    1. Re:Key line by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who says they did? They could easily have been hired at a lower salary and received raises in response to over-performing, until such time as they stopped delivering in line with their higher salary. Maybe they burned out, maybe they got complacent, maybe they started a family and stopped putting in 100-hour weeks, maybe they got promoted into a position outside their area of excellence. Lots of reasons someone might stop being as valuable as they used to be. And for better and worse pay cuts in excess of those automatically applied by inflation are generally considered to be ill-advised.

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  5. Re: PROTESTING AGAINST CENSORSHIP by Rakarra · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not trolling to mod off-topic posts to -1. Complain about it on a climate change story, it has no place here. Yeah yeah I know, "it's too important, we have to spread the word everywhere" says every zealot about every issue. Keep it on topic. If your screed has nothing to do with the story, then it should be modded down to -1, every time.

  6. When you fire someone... by Dracolytch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... especially in an at-will state, it's always legally in your best interest to not state a reason for the termination. For an at-will state, you are often not required to provide a reason, and if you do provide one it can come back to bite you in a lawsuit if they can show evidence otherwise.

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  7. Re:Bummer by ErichTheRed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I highly doubt they'll ever have one. People have been totally brainwashed against unions. Companies tout over and over again how everyone needs to come together and be buddies. Prima donna rockstar IT guys and developers loudly proclaim that they would never stoop to the level of their peers. And people wonder why there's no job security.

    Things are going to have to get REALLY bad for unions to make a comeback. Bad enough for the average people to tune out the propaganda, like 50% unemployment bad. I personally have zero issues with seniority-based job security as long as the person is performing at an acceptable level. Too many people I know are getting thrown out of the IT field in their 40s and 50s, and it's nearly impossible to get rehired due to age discrimination. I think my next career move is going to have to be "cashing in my chips" and taking a lower-paying stable job.

  8. Re:Bummer by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Meanwhile, Tesla has 2484 open jobs on its website. A rather curious strategy if they're trying to "disguise a layoff". Let's lay off "up to 700 people" and then hire 2484 new people to.... cut back on the workforce?

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  9. Re:Bummer by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd personally take a report from people who were fired about how they weren't deserving of being fired with a grain of salt.

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    I'll BUILD someone to replace you. Some kind of gamma-powered monster, with a heart as black as coal!
  10. Re:PROTESTING AGAINST CENSORSHIP by sexconker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's test my theory:

    Wubba lubba dub duuuuuuuub!

    I need that Szechuan sauce, Morty!

  11. Yes, at GE by tomhath · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I used to work at GE, they did occasionally try to fire someone for poor performance. It was always a major hassle documenting the reasons, discussing the problem with the employee, etc. But it did happen once in a while when the person was truly a non-performer and sometimes resulted in a lawsuit against the company.

    Much more common was a RIF - Reduction In Force. Those involved a large number of people (like this one at Tesla) and usually effected older employees, poor performers, and people with the misfortune to be in a poor performing business group. Yea, it's illegal to layoff older employees in order to cut salaries so they always threw in a few younger employees to make it look like a mix.

    There were usually a few really poor performers around before a RIF. We called them "canaries", because like a canary in a coal mine, as long as they were around you knew you were safe.

  12. Re:Bummer by WrongMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is a big difference between 2484 open job listings on a website and 2484 actual new hires.

  13. Re:PROTESTING AGAINST CENSORSHIP by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Global warming is real.

    Unless declared integer.

  14. Re:PROTESTING AGAINST CENSORSHIP by wjcofkc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Slashdot is supposed to be a place free of censorship and it is time that the censorship of global warming skeptics stops."

    You must be new around here. We "censor" ourselves. Majority rules on Slashdot.

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  15. Re:The truth by Uberbah · · Score: 5, Informative

    The truth is that the Big Three automakers were (and are) unable to respond to competitive stresses caused by places with lower wages being able to export into the US market.

    Not so much a truth when at the time Germany made twice as many cars while paying their workers twice as much money.

    So, no. What happened to the Big Three was their bottom lines resting on high-margin, gas guzzling vehicles, and that line fell apart after Katrina pushed gas prices over $4 a gallon. Same thing that happened to them in the 80's when the oil embargo hit and Japanese manufacturers ate their lunch.

    Unions are rather shortsighted beasts and they cause more harm to manufacturing workers in the long run than they help. If you take a year-long or five year view, they are great. Look over a career's length, and the evidence is equivocal. Over 100 years, the union will kill any manufacturing business dead

    Bullshit. The long term well-being of the union and its workers is inseparable from the the long term well-being of the company. As opposed to corporate executives, who are happy to give themselves raises and golden parachutes while driving the company into the ground. Just ask Marisa Mayer and Carly Fiorina, just to name two.

    Unions are great at getting workers stuff when the going is good, but when it is rough, they are unwilling to give anything back.

    Bullshit. Unions don't give themselves massive pay increases while the company is failing, you're thinking of corporate management. Management who talk the union into accepting pay and benefit cuts while secretly securing golden parachutes for themselves in the event of bankruptcy.