Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 268 posts

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#41

Post by emodendroket »

wpietri wrote: post #29

Do other companies do this? Unless this is GE-style force ranking, I've never heard of it. If somebody isn't performing well, I have no idea why I'd wait up to a year to deal with it. And it seems terrible for morale (and PR) to have a regular event where a bunch of people will be let go in one block.

> Tesla said the performance-based departures were not considered layoffs and not subject to state notifications. It also said the moves have generally boosted worker morale, as high-performing employees have been rewarded.

Maybe I'm just paranoid but this part kind of smells to me.

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#42

Post by emodendroket »

spectrum1234 wrote: post #22

2 key sentences in the article say so much: "Several said Model X, Model S and former SolarCity operations seemed to be targeted." ... "The spokesman said most of the dismissals were administrative and sales positions, and outside of manufacturing." This has little to do with performance or any conspiracies. If your output of products is about to dramatically shift there is no reason to think employment should remain…

If you are right then the talk about performance is just subterfuge to circumvent the law, and also it starts to look like they also illegally targeted workers talking about a union (which certainly looks bad if you've just been in the news for having too many workers injured on the job).

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#43

Post by lacker »

Steeeve wrote: post #37

I'm not a fan of this style of management at all. I won't knowingly go to work for a company that behaves in this manner. I've read that Netflix does it, and I've seen inferences that they acquired the practice from Disney. If you have a low performing employee that you want to get rid of, fine. Arbitrarily destroying the lives of a percentage of your workforce in an annual purge is not OK. People always seem to put…

What style - firing 2% of your employees in a given year? That is not a very high rate for a large company. It's only news because everything Tesla is news.

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#44

Post by kwhitefoot »

jryle70 wrote: post #14
Analemma_ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if the fired employees are good, this keeps everyone motivated and allows you to churn through employees to find the really excellent ones worth developing. The system is not inherently good or bad, as long as all parties are aware of it. Everything about these statements is wrong. Take it from someone who worked at Microsoft before and after they finally smartened up and ditched stack ranking: it's horrible.…

I don't know if OP meant stack ranking, but I've definitely seen approx 20% annual turnover at a well known consulting firm, by design. Either you go up or you are out. Not stack ranking, just performance review. Cut throat environment, but the upside is the firm is able to keep the very sharp ones. Also the alumni usually end up at other firms that can potentially become future clients. Seems to work very well for t…

> Seems to work very well for this consulting company.

But is it working for the rest of us?

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#45

Post by tbabb »

Steeeve wrote: post #37

I'm not a fan of this style of management at all. I won't knowingly go to work for a company that behaves in this manner. I've read that Netflix does it, and I've seen inferences that they acquired the practice from Disney. If you have a low performing employee that you want to get rid of, fine. Arbitrarily destroying the lives of a percentage of your workforce in an annual purge is not OK. People always seem to put…

Do they set a "quota" for 2%? Or is it that they do it every year, and 2% is about the number that falls out?

I do agree that a "firing quota" is backwards; it should be a standard of performance. But even in a healthy, high-performing company, 1 (or maybe 2) out of 100 people being a drag/net-negative contributor doesn't sound far too off. Ultimately I think it helps the other 98 people to ask those two to leave as soon as it's clear they're not going to become a net positive. If that assessment comes at a specific time of year, so be it; if it's "Okay, we have /n/ heads to chop off, where are they coming from??"... then yeah, not so much.

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#46

Post by ianai »

Steeeve wrote: post #37

I'm not a fan of this style of management at all. I won't knowingly go to work for a company that behaves in this manner. I've read that Netflix does it, and I've seen inferences that they acquired the practice from Disney. If you have a low performing employee that you want to get rid of, fine. Arbitrarily destroying the lives of a percentage of your workforce in an annual purge is not OK. People always seem to put…

I know Tesla seems to hold a special place for many people. But I don’t see how these business practices result in them disrupting the automotive industry.

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#47

Post by LoSboccacc »

wpietri wrote: post #29

Do other companies do this? Unless this is GE-style force ranking, I've never heard of it. If somebody isn't performing well, I have no idea why I'd wait up to a year to deal with it. And it seems terrible for morale (and PR) to have a regular event where a bunch of people will be let go in one block.

most large IT company do, including amazon google and ibm

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#48

Post by Animats »

High-level executives at Tesla are bailing out. Back when Musk announced his overoptimistic production schedule for the Model 3, his two top production executives quit.[1] Nine more high-level executives have left so far this year.[2]

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-04/two-tesla... [2] https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/08/02/tesla-ts...

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#49

Post by dmode »

I know someone who just got fired in this round at Tesla. His manager never communicated to him that he was a bad performer. He was not on a PIP or any performance plans. He was also working on Model 3. One fine morning his manager called him and said this would be his last day. He is a single income earner and was so shocked by this news that he is getting borderline depressed. They offered only 2 weeks of severance.

Re: Tesla fires hundreds from headquarters, factory

#50

Post by viraptor »

dmode wrote: post #49

I know someone who just got fired in this round at Tesla. His manager never communicated to him that he was a bad performer. He was not on a PIP or any performance plans. He was also working on Model 3. One fine morning his manager called him and said this would be his last day. He is a single income earner and was so shocked by this news that he is getting borderline depressed. They offered only 2 weeks of severance…

Do you know if the severance was based on time worked so far, or 2 weeks for everybody?

But yeah, this is terrible. If you don't expect you're going to be fired for bad performance, that's a company's failure, not yours.

Post reply on HN