Tesla announces fourth round of layoffs in four weeks

Stuka87

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,098
Oh to be a fly on the wall at NASA, the DOD, and anybody else deeply beholden to SpaceX right now. Can you even imagine what a sphincter winker all this must be for them? I have to imagine there is some frantic emergency planning going on. As in, what would actually happen if he turned his rage toward that company instead? How much of this sort of chaos would “they” tolerate before stepping in, and what exactly would that intervention look like? I have to assume that some red binders are being updated this week.

If it came down to that, the DoD does have things at their disposal to essentially "take over" the company and put somebody else in charge of it.
 
Upvote
91 (94 / -3)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

Legatum_of_Kain

Ars Praefectus
4,057
Subscriptor++
I will say that Tesla is burning down faster than I anticipated, but I said the same thing about Twitter and it’s still there…
It’s still there but just barely, they’ll stop being there when Mush stops paying bills and that can’t be too far off, certainly not after December, he will keep getting money until the election in USA is done.
 
Upvote
44 (47 / -3)

DarthSlack

Ars Legatus Legionis
23,061
Subscriptor++
SpaceX employees should be taking notes. Yeah, they've got Shotwell to try and run interference, but from Musk's behavior at Tesla the last couple of weeks, that might not be the firewall that it used to be. It sounds like all she has to do is have one misplaced "No Elon, we're not doing that" and she'll be out the door as fast as Tesla's charging division.
 
Upvote
172 (172 / 0)

adespoton

Ars Legatus Legionis
10,690
Produce me a cheap car , or give me a real discount on your surplus and I might buy one
I wouldn't. That's the downside to having a car be "in the cloud" with a closed-source single-provider service. If Tesla folds, that car is going to encounter issues in remaining functional, and a number of its features will cease working immediately.
 
Upvote
126 (126 / 0)
This is the chance for Rivian or other small electric auto manufacturers to get some talent. That's a lot of experience Tesla is losing
The world and EV progress will be fine if Tesla cars stop selling. The more concerning thing is regarding what will happen to the Tesla Super Charger network.
 
Upvote
58 (59 / -1)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

solomonrex

Ars Legatus Legionis
13,516
Subscriptor++
I know the BoD is in thrall to Mr. ADD, but where are the institutional investors? Why are they silent?
The MBA degree has become it's own religious cult of profits above people. They approve of layoffs even by dubious CEOs for dubious reasons. No one got fired for firing people post-Reagan, they get bonuses. It's a form of penitence really. If the company doesn't have unsustainable growth, it must cut employees. If it's acquired, it's to cut employees.

They imagine that employees will work harder to avoid dismissal but it's just as often the opposite, as the best employees look for better situations and the worst simply avoid dismissal by cutting corners or worse. Twitter wasn't improved by layoffs.

Elon Musk is selling this company on growth while cutting the same amount of positions its grew by last year. There should be no way to justify that.
 
Upvote
144 (147 / -3)
Queue explanation about how this will make things better, because its always "the bad employees" and not "dumping anything to make stonk prices higher". Just like the entire charging team was "extra baggage" and not the primary advantage tesla has (had) over comeptition....

Musk is reminding me of a gop governor getting ready to run for president. Burning the long term down to make it look good for just a moment. This is ALL about trying to get his stupidly oversized payment vote.
 
Upvote
61 (65 / -4)

adespoton

Ars Legatus Legionis
10,690
The world and EV progress will be fine if Tesla cars stop selling. The more concerning thing is regarding what will happen to the Tesla Super Charger network.
Then again, Tesla folding might be one of the best things to happen to the network at this point, as long as someone else picks it up for a reasonable price and runs with it. It should be possible to keep the network profitable while still staying cheaper than gasoline. And it's already established and has a good reputation, two of the things other networks are struggling to achieve.
 
Upvote
67 (68 / -1)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

Dragonmaster Lou

Ars Scholae Palatinae
661
Subscriptor
This is the chance for Rivian or other small electric auto manufacturers to get some talent. That's a lot of experience Tesla is losing
Non-completes are illegal in California (even before the recent FTC findings). Tesla and many of those smaller rivals are in CA. I sense headhunters are firing up their keyboards and phones right now.
 
Upvote
86 (86 / 0)

KingKrayola

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,620
Subscriptor
How is their unsold inventory comparing to other EV manufacturers?

Also, the incremental layoffs over time are basically conditioning at this point. As time moves forward for Tesla, their intention is to have less and less people employed. It's no secret.
But - call me a narrow minded conventionalist - aren't they meant to invent some automation to build the cars and then lay off the humans?

Someone is jumping to step 2 a bit early, no?
 
Upvote
87 (87 / 0)

drkstar82

Smack-Fu Master, in training
47
I know that the U.S. government has a lot of national security concerns tied up with SpaceX. I gotta wonder what the procedures are for keeping that from becoming a bleeding crisis?

Divesting from SpaceX would probably not work well, so some kind of eminent domain stricture instead?
I wonder what the income for SpaceX is if you look at just government contracts including foreign contracts? Compares to just civilian contracts. Governments aren't going to want this level of instability and honestly neither will corporate customers. If he starts going ape shit at SpaceX they will have to throw him out of the job if they want the company to continue.
 
Upvote
37 (38 / -1)

DrewW

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,928
Subscriptor++
It's been a while since I've looked at WARN Act compliance, but I have to wonder if these slow-motion layoffs comply, given that they seem to be across many different areas and it's difficult to work out who is an "affected employee." Are employees being given sixty days notice or reverence severance?
I went through a WARN layoff cycle: we got laid off, email shut down etc, and then got paid for the next sixty days. Severance kicks in after the 60 days (if you don't work for Elon).
 
Upvote
58 (58 / 0)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

real mikeb_60

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
13,009
Subscriptor
At this rate it's going to become a collector's model.
Trash collector?

Realistically, M has made most previous money by selling the company. Has he reached the point where there's no obvious buyer for Tesla so he's thrashing in all directions to find money to keep the stock price up? Cutting costs is usually how that's done, if approached rationally, though the way this case is playing out "rationally" might not be in play.
 
Upvote
29 (29 / 0)

AmanoJyaku

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
16,197
And The Market in its infinite wisdom treated these news with rewarding the company with a hefty stock price increase (+2% as of writing this post). I’m _sure_the analysts know something we don’t because surely they cannot be wrong? 🙃

Stock prices generally go up when layoffs are announced, because it's always assumed a business has more employees than necessary, and workers are less productive than optimal. Thus, laying off 10% of your headcount shouldn't impact the business, because the remaining 90% are capable of producing the same amount of work. Therefore, the business is saving money, which means more for dividends...

Except, it's almost never true employees are less productive than optimal. Short-term productivity gains driven by fears of job loss quickly give way to worker burnout. I've seen so many layoffs quietly reversed, or overall revenue drop due to lower production. What analysts are betting on is Tesla being able to recover from whatever is happening. And any company normally would. But most companies aren't run by Musk...
 
Upvote
102 (103 / -1)
My personal theory is he is like an AI that has gone rampant.

Objectively smart guy, but then start adding in the ravages of chronic sleep deprivation, and being surrounded by yes-men/women, and natural age-related changes ...
CEOs have people behind the scense to coach them on what to say so they sound smart. Its a VERY common thing. Musk just bought into his own bullshit and believed he was that smart.
 
Upvote
77 (77 / 0)

KingKrayola

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,620
Subscriptor
Reverence? Definitely not. Musk thinks anyone who's not him is disposable.

Severance? Probably not. Musk thinks he's above the law, and he's often been right so far.
Severance is a baaaad word when you owe billions to Mr Bone Saw and you've just hate-fucked a tech company that you impulse bought with said borrowed cash.
 
Upvote
72 (74 / -2)

EricM2

Ars Centurion
355
Subscriptor
Oh to be a fly on the wall at NASA, the DOD, and anybody else deeply beholden to SpaceX right now. Can you even imagine what a sphincter winker all this must be for them? I have to imagine there is some frantic emergency planning going on. As in, what would actually happen if he turned his rage toward that company instead? How much of this sort of chaos would “they” tolerate before stepping in, and what exactly would that intervention look like? I have to assume that some red binders are being updated this week.
Agree. The U.S. government's risk management plan titled "Elon Musk owns assets important for national security" surely would be a fascinating read, too... However, given the speed with which HR- and know-how related destructions are executed on Musk's property lately, how do try to "manage" that type of risk?
 
Upvote
27 (28 / -1)