Tesla's part-time CEO Elon Musk gathered the troops for a ray-rah session where he shared his dream of "building legions of Optimus robots that usher in a utopian age of sustainable abundance in which mankind will want for nothing." Really? So how's the current Tesla work utopia going?
A Tesla employee recently offered the following on Glassdoor:
Rare to be recognized, let alone thanked, for going above and beyond to accomplish something out of the ordinary. Once you've "done the impossible", it's just assumed that you can and will do it again and again from now on.
Literally hundreds of people in one room, desks on top of each other, as many as possible in every little space. Companies claim that they’re being “modern” and “progressive” by not having offices and cubicles, but they’re just being cheap. Look at pictures of offices from the 1950’s. You’ll see the same hundreds of desks in a room.
Yearly raises are typically less than the cost of living
Work/life balance is mediocre at best
Smallish yearly bonuses in the form of golden handcuffs. RSUs that vest over 4 years, so you’ll wait a long time to benefit from them Those who were hired before mid-2013 made a lot of money off stock options, but many of those people are leaving now that all of their options are used up.
Revolving door. It’s hard to last more than a couple of years here.
It’s always seemingly a few steps away from massive failure
Very few processes in place, so work is done extremely inefficiently.
Completely ineffective HR department
Every department is grossly understaffed, just barely above the point of collapse. Nearly everyone has to work harder than they would if they were doing the same job at another company.If Musk wanted to build a shared utopia he has ample opportunity to do so as Tesla CEO. That he hasn't is a reflection on his desired "robot utopia" future. Wasn't he just saying there's a 10-20% of AI robots going bad and wiping out humanity? How is that utopia (for someone other than a sadistic gamer)?
Board members sold stock. Tesla's CFO sold stock. Elon wants staff to hold onto their shares.
Another utopia building company's executives sold stock while encouraging employees to fill their retirement funds with Enron shares. That utopia never materialized, while Elon's could well come true. It's not likely given his current treatment of Tesla staff. The caring part of the feedback loop is missing, nonfunctional or short circuited.
