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Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#21

Post by p1esk »

WalterSear wrote: post #19
lsc wrote: post #2

Sounds shocking... but having worked as a contractor for a goodly portion of my career, I'd argue that something is seriously wrong if you can't get at least one employee to vouch for you. Really, every place I've worked, you could say this happens every month; almost always I've needed an employee to sign off on my hours, either the person I report to or the person they report to. I always took that as a vote of con…

> I'd argue that something is seriously wrong if you can't get at least one employee to vouch for you. The corollary to that is that if you get to the point where you need to check on the vouchsafety of all your contractors - en masse - something is seriously wrong with your company.

Something is seriously wrong with most large companies, and most of them simply ignore that. Good to see Tesla being different in that regard.

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#22

Post by sjwright »

WalterSear wrote: post #19
lsc wrote: post #2

Sounds shocking... but having worked as a contractor for a goodly portion of my career, I'd argue that something is seriously wrong if you can't get at least one employee to vouch for you. Really, every place I've worked, you could say this happens every month; almost always I've needed an employee to sign off on my hours, either the person I report to or the person they report to. I always took that as a vote of con…

> I'd argue that something is seriously wrong if you can't get at least one employee to vouch for you. The corollary to that is that if you get to the point where you need to check on the vouchsafety of all your contractors - en masse - something is seriously wrong with your company.

I think Elon was pretty clear that he considers the situation to be seriously wrong, hence the extreme approach. It's a refreshing attitude; this sort of problem is common in most large companies.

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#23

Post by p1esk »

rdl wrote: post #16

Tesla seems like a company where people would place a premium on being a direct employee, vs. another organization. I'd certainly feel more 'pride' in saying "I work for Tesla" than "I work for X" for almost all non-SpaceX or tiny-startup values of X, and that's probably generally held by people who would contract for Tesla.

I'd certainly feel more 'pride' in saying "I work for Tesla"

Why? SpaceX, sure. But Tesla? Just because it gets more news coverage?

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#24

Post by lsc »

analog31 wrote: post #20
lsc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

see, I think there is a big cultural difference. Like, I always had that attitude as an employee, but I think that as an employee, it holds me back. I think the key is that as an employee, you are expected to act in the interest of the company in ways that are different from what you are expected to do as a contractor. My perception and experience is that as a contractor, I'm supposed to do what you tell me to do. If…

I tend to think of myself as a professional first, and employee second. The distinction between employee and contractor becomes a matter of accounting and tax law. >>> The company, by making them the boss, has said that the company thinks the boss knows more than I do, so maybe the right thing to do is to go along with it? I don't assume that for one minute. I work in a job where there is literally nobody else in the…

>I don't assume that for one minute. I work in a job where there is literally nobody else in the company with my expertise.

So, I've been there, and... the thing that makes me chuckle is that a few years later, in part because I thought the boss was such an idiot, I started my own company with my own employees.

The funny thing was, I found myself, at times, getting into the same sort of arguments with my employee, only on the other side. There are... other factors in play, when you are looking at things from a organizational or business perspective.

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#25

Post by analog31 »

lsc wrote: post #24
analog31 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to think of myself as a professional first, and employee second. The distinction between employee and contractor becomes a matter of accounting and tax law. >>> The company, by making them the boss, has said that the company thinks the boss knows more than I do, so maybe the right thing to do is to go along with it? I don't assume that for one minute. I work in a job where there is literally nobody else in the…

>I don't assume that for one minute. I work in a job where there is literally nobody else in the company with my expertise. So, I've been there, and... the thing that makes me chuckle is that a few years later, in part because I thought the boss was such an idiot, I started my own company with my own employees. The funny thing was, I found myself, at times, getting into the same sort of arguments with my employee, on…

Indeed, and I run my own business on the side. I've also been in management. I have a very close relationship with many of the managers, so they are pretty open with me about their thought processes and the issues that they face.

And they face the same arguments with the managers above them, and so forth... "So, naturalists observe a flea..."

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#26

Post by solarkraft »

icanhackit wrote: post #12

Being a hard ass CEO isn't sexy, but it's what so many successful CEO's are. > Often, it is like a Russian nesting doll of contractor, subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, etc. before you finally find someone doing actual work. I'd also argue that these multi-level contractor setups are a major security concern. Ideally they should make it policy to have no more than one additional level between Tesla and the contractor…

It really makes me wonder: Isn't using contractors super inefficient? Why do companies, when they could do it in house, use them?

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#27

Post by solarkraft »

p1esk wrote: post #23
rdl wrote: post #16

Tesla seems like a company where people would place a premium on being a direct employee, vs. another organization. I'd certainly feel more 'pride' in saying "I work for Tesla" than "I work for X" for almost all non-SpaceX or tiny-startup values of X, and that's probably generally held by people who would contract for Tesla.

I'd certainly feel more 'pride' in saying "I work for Tesla" Why? SpaceX, sure. But Tesla? Just because it gets more news coverage?

Tesla is cool. But as a contractor, effectively working for Tesla, I'd probably also call it that.

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#29

Post by LifeLiverTransp »

lsc wrote: post #2

Sounds shocking... but having worked as a contractor for a goodly portion of my career, I'd argue that something is seriously wrong if you can't get at least one employee to vouch for you. Really, every place I've worked, you could say this happens every month; almost always I've needed an employee to sign off on my hours, either the person I report to or the person they report to. I always took that as a vote of con…

We are not- fired usually though. Ones contract is simply not renewed or ended ahead of time.

I always thought of us contractors as stateless mercenaries, and you cant expatriat (aka fire) a stateless mercenary.

Also regarding the useless middle management Elon mentions- thats the beauty of sub-contracting.

The poor fool at the end of the chain usually has to do the managment work and projekt-management too.

Re: Tesla reviewing contractors, firing everyone not vouched for by an employee

#30

Post by querulous »

solarkraft wrote: post #26
icanhackit wrote: post #12

Being a hard ass CEO isn't sexy, but it's what so many successful CEO's are. > Often, it is like a Russian nesting doll of contractor, subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, etc. before you finally find someone doing actual work. I'd also argue that these multi-level contractor setups are a major security concern. Ideally they should make it policy to have no more than one additional level between Tesla and the contractor…

It really makes me wonder: Isn't using contractors super inefficient? Why do companies, when they could do it in house, use them?

it's a lot easier to have a contracting shop send over 500 people than it is to hire 500 people
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