Elon Musk has just terminated multiple senior executives at Tesla, with hundreds of other Tesla staffers let go at the 'send' button of an email from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The Information is reporting that Musk wrote in an email to Tesla staff that were being laid off: "Hopefully, these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so".
Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Tesla's Supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, the head of new products, will both be leaving Tesla today. Tesla has a global workforce of around 140,000 with the electric vehicle giant ordering a culling of over 10% of its workforce, which results in 14,000+ layoffs. The hundreds of people let go today are just a new wave of layoffs, it seems. Two senior leaders, battery development chief Drew Baglino, and Patel have both announced that they're leaving Tesla.
Another story of a laid off Tesla employee is Nico Murillo, who until April 15 was working as a production supervisor at Tesla's facility in Freemont. He posted about his experience being laid off at Tesla on his personal LinkedIn account, sharing a timeline of how it happened:
- 4:30am: Opened my laptop, account was de activated. Thought it was just another IT problem, so didn't think anything of it.
- 5:00am: I usually check my emails while on my autopilot commute to work (1hr 30min drive) Email read: "Unfortunately as a result, your position has been eliminated by this restructuring."
- 5:05am: Texted my manager, but he said "everyone got it, we'll get more info later"
- 5:50am: Tried to badge in, and the security guard took my badge and told me I was laid off
- 6:00am: Sat in my car in disbelief.
Murillo was at Tesla for 5 years, moving from an entry-level Production Associate role into Lead Production Associate, and then Production Supervisor. He had a 90-minute one-way commute to work, and was sleeping in his car, showing at the factory, and even microwaving his dinners on the days he was working at Tesla.