Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

[Zorro]

Source: The Mercury News

Tesla fired hundreds of workers this week, including engineers, managers and factory workers, even as the company struggles to expand its manufacturing and product line.

The dismissals come at a crucial point for the company, which is pushing to increase vehicle production five-fold and reach a broader market with its new Model 3 sedan. The electric vehicle maker missed targets for producing the lower-cost sedan, manufacturing only 260 last quarter despite a wait list of more than 450,000 customers.

The company said this week’s dismissals were the result of a company-wide annual review, and insisted they were not layoffs. Some workers received promotions and bonuses, and the company expects to hire for the “vast majority” of new vacancies, a spokesman said.

“As with any company, especially one of over 33,000 employees, performance reviews also occasionally result in employee departures,” a spokesman said. “Tesla is continuing to grow and hire new employees around the world.”


Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/13/4819750/

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Wonder what the real story behind the story is.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I too wonder what the real story is.

I know a union has been pushing for unionization..........wonder if this had anything to do with that.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Think you are on to the real truth.

Musk is not a Union friendly person.

[Jim Lane]

18. Unionization activities are legally protected.

As with any law, enforcement is imperfect. Still, if Tesla fired hundreds of workers, and it turns out that firings disproportionately affected people who'd been working for unionization, the employer will have a problem.

The National Labor Relations Board isn't currently known for diligent protection of workers' rights. A countervailing factor, however, is that Musk resigned from not one but two of Trump's business executive councils. On top of that, he's pushing electric cars, which can't sit well with all the oil people in the administration. I suspect that, in this one case, any allegation of employer misconduct that's remotely plausible would be pursued with great vigor.

[coolsandy]

20. Perhaps they found infiltrators?

[Jim Lane]

21. Do you mean industrial espionage?

I'm sure that goes on but I don't think there would be this many of them.

Absent other evidence, I'm inclined to take this at face value. They did performance reviews and decided to sack the worst-performing 2% or so.

[a kennedy]

2. Yikes.....that's a lot of workers.....

and damn, I WANT MY TESLA.

[BootinUp]

4. So who has the short version on the

Production issues?x

[dalton99a]

5. No layoff, no layoff. Hundreds fell asleep at their jobs so we fired them

[SCVDem]

6. Out of 33,000

finding hundreds of goof offs, chronic attendance problems, coming to work buzzed and flat out poor work quality wouldn't be a stretch.

The article did mention performance reviews and some were promoted.

This must have been a real 'come to Jesus' review to get that much movement.

[jaysunb]

7. 450.000 wait list. 260 delivered.

And, this has some sort of bad motive ??

[jmowreader]

8. I think I see what the "real story behind the story is"

There are an estimated 450,000 people on the Model 3 reservation list. According to the article, TSLA projected building 1500 Model 3 cars in the last quarter - and only made 260. I realize this is a brand new model and they need time to sort out production issues...but missing your production target that badly is a catastrophe. You KNOW heads were going to roll over that one.

[James48]

9. This can't go on.

Tessa is losing money on every car it makes. It's always promised what it can never deliver.

Companies like GM and Ford struggle to make profits and survive. Right now the auto industry just had a great 2016, and demand is beginning to fall. But GM and Ford are still profitable, whereas Teska is still losing money on every single car it makes.

It is only a matter if time before the stock market realizes that Tessa must either do better than break even, or go out of business entirely.

[brush]

10. It's disturbing. Wonder if they're going to go the way of Faraday, the other electric car...

company that was supposed to come to Nevada but has yet to produce anything.

[Zorro]

13. Faraday is/was a pipe dream

Tesla has delivered several hundred thousand of the most advanced electric cars on the road.

[brush]

14. A production target of 1500 vehicles and only 260 produced doesn't bode well.

[Zorro]

15. Musk predicted 6 months of initial production hell

That's the stage Model 3 production is in right now.

[Zorro]

12. Tesla's gross profit margin is 24%

That's pretty decent.

Tesla does report quarterly losses due to the massive capital expenditures in building out that $1B+ gigafactory battery plant, among other things.

I would not bet against someone who manages to routinely land a rocket's first stage on an ocean barge.

[PuppyBismark]

11. Nothing to see here

It seems that many commenting here have never worked in a large company. Not doubt there were a number of individuals who did not do a good job and their reviews showed it. I'm surprised the number is so low. It tells me that Tesla is indeed committed to quality and those who do not meet that standard were asked to leave.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. Good luck trying the "not a layoff" line on EDD

Hundreds of simultaneous performance related terminations? Yeah... you morons have fun with that.

[Xolodno]

17. Uhm....400 to 700 given the boot out of 33k+

Sounds like a small department got killed off when they realized they weren't going to get the benefit they thought....or thought, the resources could be better utilized somewhere else.

Sounds like he news site is trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

[reggaehead]

19. Interesting

I interviewed with them last week at their request. Have not gotten any feedback