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California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

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151–160 of 251 posts

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're low margin and labor intensive ... and thus very vulnerable to strikes or arbitrary price hikes. Yes, a seat is a seat, but once you're locked in into a vendor, you are locked in. Tesla wants to avoid lock-ins as far as possible and especially something where a switch to a different manufacturer is as difficult as a seat. You can switch a vendor for a simple plastic part in a matter of days if the need aris…

"and thus very vulnerable to strikes or arbitrary price hikes" If they have professional supply chain and commercial departments they'll have contingencies in place for situations like this.

> If they have professional supply chain and commercial departments they'll have contingencies in place for situations like this.

Even companies as massive as VW can not handle such a situation (as evidenced last year: https://www.ft.com/content/ffd3ee62-6934-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea0...).

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#152

Don't know about Tesla, but have heard horror stories about SpaceX here in LA. 60+ hour weeks, butts in seats, whole depts fired/walkouts, sweatshop conditions, etc. Some folks are still not aware that these practices lower productivity. shrug

Worked at SpaceX in LA on software. It was generally quite pleasant but you do put in a lot of hours. No one asks you to work overtime or work extra hours - it’s just a fun environment and you like your coworkers so you stay at work longer than you should. Most people who were there longer than I was ended up finding a healthy work / life balance that they could sustain... I don’t think the new folks do this because they’re obsessed with learning as much as they can.

I left because the space industry moves at quite a slow pace compared to the rest of the software world and I was tired of working on one small piece of software while the world was changing around me...

All in all? SpaceX was pretty wonderful and I don’t think anyone should judge employee happiness solely from hours worked. I was frequently encouraged to take some recharge time for me. This is just one data point and maybe we’re all only hearing the negative data points?

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California law DOES protect whistleblowers. The law is extremely clear. Those laws even provide for damages due to retailiation.

So why are people still afraid to talk, then? It's obvious that either the law isn't as crystal clear, the law does not prevent companies from writing FUD into employment contracts or that people are not educated well enough about their rights. Or: that they have economic pressure (e.g. no 3 months of savings, like way too many people have!) to stay in their job and thus cannot afford to lose it by ratting out illega…

Tesla has a history of blaming the owners of their cars for accidents with plenty of people defending Tesla's actions. I would imagine that a paycheck-to-paycheck worker has to know that the response to them will be similar with the added bonus of a signed NDA.

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#154
post #62

> It was difficult to find employees to go on the record. Like a lot of tech companies in Silicon Valley, workers signed non-disclosure agreements. NDAs usually are put in place so workers don't share any trade secrets or proprietary technology. So some workers were scared to talk to us because of this NDA they sign for working at Tesla. Damn, so workers were afraid to speak up and spread the injury info because they…

There need to be penalties for knowingly putting unenforceable terms in employment contracts. Too many companies subvert the law by putting unenforceable terms in their contracts and knowing that most employees will not realize that the terms are unenforceable and that most of the rest will be too afraid of being sued to break the contract even if they know that they would eventually win in court.

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#155
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you skeptical about? That this person's friend is actually injured? That it happened because of tesla? People get injured at work. Maybe not where YOU work, but it absolutely happens. Also, the subtext of your comment - that this person OF COURSE would have contacted a news organization if their claim was legitimate is frankly very weird.

I am skeptical by default of anything on the internet posted on forums with nothing more than an email requirement. I voice this skepticism because as a hobby I lie on reddit profusely and then track this misinformation, sometimes for years later. I've seen unfactual "memes" spread across reddit like wildfire, such as "eating honey prevents allergies." It's often traceable to a single sub-tree comment in a single pop…

Is this skepticism consistent? If I browse a few weeks of your comment history, will this tendency to doubt “anything posted on the internet with nothing more than an email requirement” be your norm?

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#156
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually willing to give Tesla credit here precisely for that reason -- not because unions are bad (many industries need it, auto included), but because UAW in my possibly-misinformed mind has been at least indirectly the cause of a decline in build quality in American cars.

This is a self-contradictory statement and the end of which you're blaming unions for something you don't provide evidence. Citation please.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/business/27auto.html?m...

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/business/28auto.html

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/business/15auto.html

Closest I can get you since all the journal articles are from conservative-leaning institutions with a vested interest against unionization. All three articles are about the new contracts UAW signed in 2007 as the auto industry was collapsing in the United States, all of which cite massive concessions back to the auto companies. Notably, Ford still got to fold 10 of their original 16 plants scheduled for closure, GM got to shift away massive healthcare obligations, and Chrysler managed to substantially reduce their employment guarantees.

If you were a union interested in a happy balance between company and employee rather than just making your employees score every short-term dollar that they could, you wouldn't need to concede like this with one, let alone every, major United States-founded auto maker.

It's worth noting that GM actually got the biggest haul up front since they got the opportunity to negotiate first.

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we all want Tesla to succeed. It's competition in an industry that needs what Tesla is trying to bring to market. It will also greatly benefit the American economy to be the first to mass produce inexpensive electric cars. So personally, I read comments like yours and wonder who you are and why you feel it is necessary to be critical of that motive.

It's important to look at everything with a critical lens, especially the stuff you support. Tesla is deeply flawed, and in order for it to succeed, it needs to overcome those flaws.

OK, so how do we (outsiders) productively discuss Tesla's "flaws" without spending all of our time engaging in arm-chair quarterbacking based on rumors, many of which turn out to be incorrect or incomplete?

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#158
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also notable that TSLA has a very large community of short interests. That kind of money can drive all sorts of stories in the press...

Yes but short interest is still dwarfed by traditional long positions. All the money wrapped up into long positions can also drive press.

Tesla has one of the largest communities of shorts, and a normal community of longs.

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#159
post #62

> It was difficult to find employees to go on the record. Like a lot of tech companies in Silicon Valley, workers signed non-disclosure agreements. NDAs usually are put in place so workers don't share any trade secrets or proprietary technology. So some workers were scared to talk to us because of this NDA they sign for working at Tesla. Damn, so workers were afraid to speak up and spread the injury info because they…

NDA situation is getting out of control in the United States.

Almost every employee at every company signs an NDA when they start working. Oftentimes NDAs and other employment documents (Non-Compete clauses etc) are chock full unenforceable information. Most people agree because there's no ability to negotiate these documents, because they don't understand the clauses or because they don't know they're unenforceable.

Re: California Opens Investigation into Tesla Workplace Conditions

#160

The real problem for Tesla is that their destiny is probably to be the next BMW - a good midrange luxury car maker, about #12 in the world on volume. That would be fine except for the excessive market cap. Tesla's market cap exceeded GM's at one point. The stock has to come down a lot if Tesla ends up at BMW's scale. Even with Tesla's most optimistic production estimates, Tesla will make far fewer cars than BMW in th…

If Tesla ends up as the next BMW I would consider that an absolutely astounding success.
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