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Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

cnbc.com

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Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#161

Post by chrisbennet »

dver wrote: post #56
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #2

Sources said that HR department representatives told staff in one office they were being let go due to problematic "conduct with peers." When questioned, an ex-employee said, HR declined to specify any details about the alleged poor conduct, which had never been previously discussed. Is this pre-empting a union push?

Your peers were here on weekends and you were not.

Your peers drank the coolaid an you did not.

“You make the rest of us look bad when you don’t donate your weekend to The Company. Wouldn’t you rather make Our Leader richer instead of being with your family?”

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#162

Post by sgc »

city41 wrote: post #117
mhermher wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly of note precisely because they are not layoffs according to Tesla. They were full on fired with cause. It's strange to say the least. What would trigger a mass firing like that. It's unusual.

I'm a SolarCity customer and absolutely despise them. Their customer service makes Comcast look like a saint. I can't help but cross my fingers this is a sign Tesla might be doing something about it. But I'm not getting too hopeful.

I had them come by for a quote. I never bothered to put their numbers in to compare to other offers because it was a terrible experience. I have no idea if they are even working on changing that, or just pivoting to industrial installations.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#163

Post by sgc »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #111
sgc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What company did you use? I have received 3 quotes and none make much sense.

Solarcity. Highly recommended.

Weird. I had them come by for a quote and they were about 25% more than the second closest bid. I never did the full math. This was on a 5kW installation.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#164

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

southphillyman wrote: post #61
abiox wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being fired with cause impacts their ability to collect unemployment, which most these people deserve. afaik, performance doesn't impact your benefits in the US, unless it's tied to 'willful misconduct'. if you're (for example) simply incompetent, but honest and good-intentioned, it's entirely the employer's fault for improperly filling the position per their own requirements.

In the U.S is it legal for companies to disclose how former employees were let go (laid off vs. fired). I imagine they just give dates. Otherwise how would fired employees ever gain future employment in competitive fields.

Is it legal? Yes.

Do companies do it? Usually not.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#165

Post by jdavis703 »

chrisbennet wrote: post #160
jdavis703 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're an exempt employee (you're exempt if you're not an hourly employee or making over ~$23,000 USD in the USA), means that you're not qualified for overtime. When other team members are putting in over time, but a few people aren't they're effectively freeloading on the people putting in more effort.

So , the company tries to extract free labor but the person who doesn’t let them get away with it is the person you blame???

I don't see how it's free labor. I'm not sure if you're European or American, but in the U.S. most professional jobs don't have set hours, it's more you work until the task is satisfactorly completed within defined time constraints.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#166

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

montyboy_us wrote: post #21

SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity: ponzi schemes that have a little tech behind them and pull on our heartstrings.

You do know that "Ponzi scheme" has a very precise definition, right? It isn't a generic term for a scam.

In any case, Tesla/SolarCity/SpaceX definitely aren't scams. Go ride in a Model S and see how much of a "scam" it is. Go watch videos of SpaceX rockets returning to Earth and landing vertically and gently so they can easily be reused and try to call it a scam.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#167

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

eighthnate wrote: post #125
ctdonath wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ponzi schemes don't produce major technological advancement. SpaceX made reusable rockets a thing. Tesla made great cars with bleeding-edge EV technology. SolarCity made "solar roof" a viable & aesthetic product. All three are still thriving on a lot of tech advancement. Long-term success remains to be seen in three very difficult industries, but current performance is certainly not the facades of Ponzi schemes.

> Tesla made great cars with bleeding-edge EV technology. What "bleeding-edge" EV tech? Tesla hasn't made a single "bleeding-edge" contribution to EV tech. > SolarCity made "solar roof" a viable & aesthetic product. That's why solar city went bankrupt and had to be "bailed out" by musk? > All three are still thriving on a lot of tech advancement. SpaceX, tesla nor solar city made a SINGLE contribution to tech advance…

> What "bleeding-edge" EV tech? Tesla hasn't made a single "bleeding-edge" contribution to EV tech.

They proved that an all-electric car is viable. While certainly not an advancement in the truest sense of the word since we already had Li-Ion batteries and large electric motors, it was definitely a contribution.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#168

Post by pktgen »

wbl wrote: post #31
jmcgough wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has been waging an internal war against union formation, so wouldn't surprise me if they were firing people they saw as pushing unionization.

That's a surefire way to get hauled up before the NLRB. I'm not surprised companies try it, but they usually get sued for it.

The NLRB already filed a complaint against Tesla recently: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CPT.3....

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#169

Post by kamaal »

rtpg wrote: post #155
SRasch wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you say 3,6 % is that stringent though? I remember GE under Welch fired 10 % of the lowest performers every year, that seemed kind of stringent. But Tesla is fast-hiring and acquiring, so seem to have a larger need to fix hiring-errors than GE. At the end of 2015 they had only 14,000 employees! In light of that, 3,6 % seems completely reasonable to me. Low, even. Concerning the performance review: would expect…

I thought the concensus now was that Welch's leadership under GE was not good. There's been a lot of rants about the utility of stack ranking and this sort of "fire the worst performers because everyone else is better" attitude. Namely wrong incentives. You have John Carmack and a clone of John Carmack working on your game engine. You have stack ranking. Which one should you let go during review season? Should you hi…

That worked at GE largely because they were getting rid of the gold watch retirement crowd. That worked in the past as companies had people who worked there all life, and most of the time late in career they would come to work, do nothing all day and go home.

Jack Welch was simply doing long pending layoffs.

Re: Tesla's mass firings spread to SolarCity

#170

Post by kamaal »

seibelj wrote: post #15

Couldn't Tesla / SolarCity just said, "Hey, company didn't do well, sorry, here's 2 weeks severance"? Why do this whole "bad performance review" nonsense.

'Company didn't do well' translates to some higher manager up the chain performing badly. Its always easier to shift the blame on somebody else, and have them take the fall for the big shots.
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