In an all-too-common theme of today’s world, Tesla employees are working under the immense fear they’re going to receive a dreaded “Dear Employee” layoff email from CEO Elon Musk. He has slashed the Austin, Texas-based automaker’s workforce by over 10 percent, but he still does not seem to be done.
Because of that, Tesla employees, like many around the U.S., wake up every morning wondering if they still have a job. The rolling job cuts at Tesla are likely to continue through at least June, according to Bloomberg. The outlet spoke with folks who were familiar with what is going on inside Tesla but weren’t authorized to speak publicly about it.
Here’s more from Bloomberg on what Tesla employees have been going through for the past few months:
“It’s difficult to imagine the feeling of walking on eggshells every day at work, uncertain whether or not you’ll be able to pay your bills or feed your family,” Michael Minick, a former Tesla sales representative who was laid off in April, wrote on LinkedIn. “It would be a relief to know that they can breathe and focus on their work, without the gray cloud of uncertainty looming over.”
Tesla’s workforce already has endured dramatic transformation the last few years — the onetime Silicon Valley upstart with a maniacal vision on clean energy is now concentrated in Texas and fixated on other undertakings, including artificial intelligence and robots.
Some still with the company say Musk has sapped morale by prioritizing a robotaxi over a $25,000 electric vehicle. They also say a mission that had inspired legions of Musk acolytes has been muddied. The tumult — some of which has been self-inflicted — has contributed to Tesla shares slumping 29% this year, costing the company $224 billion in market value. The stock fell another 1.4% shortly after the start of regular trading Monday.
Despite months of cuts, the CEO has yet to announce that job cuts are over. It’s led to a bit of a gallows humor phenomenon, Bloomberg reports, about the anxiety and insomnia they are facing. One employee apparently told the outlet it felt a lot like “Squid Game.” Yikes.
Here’s how employees and departments have been deadline with these massive layoffs, from Bloomberg:
The waves of dismissals, which already have hit thousands across departments including sales, human resources and virtually the entire Supercharger division, are expected to gut significant parts of Tesla, which started the year with more than 140,000 employees. Musk has pushed for a 20% reduction in headcount, Bloomberg reported last month.
In the Supercharger division, some employees found out that Max de Zegher, the director of charging for North America, had been laid off after his Microsoft Teams icon suddenly went gray, indicating that he was no longer with the company.
Many on the team spent the next several days saying their goodbyes, cracking jokes and making references to the Titanic, according to Joel Musial, who was laid off from his job as a Tesla construction manager. “We were just missing the string quartet!” Musial wrote on LinkedIn.
In another sign that Tesla is a well-run company, Musk actually rehired de Zegher and has said he still wants to expand Tesla’s Supercharging business.