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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

#92
post #35
post #14

Is it possible this just Tesla "encouraging" contractors to switch to employees? Contractors generally get paid significantly more than employees in the short term, and Tesla is on the line for getting to profitability.

Employees have a lot of expenses that contractors don't have. Payroll taxes, health insurance, other benefits, and generally there are more HR policies governing termination for an employee than a contractor, even in an at-will employment situation.

Yes, in the major tech companies very few people will elect to stay W2 contractors if given the chance to convert. Most would prefer full time positions.

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

#93
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having owned both a GM and a Tesla, I'm amused by the idea that GM's build quality is better. I actually liked my GM a lot, but quality was lacking to say the least.

Having driven Fords, GMs and a Tesla, I'd say GM isn't international standard either, but Ford is definitely.

I've never driven a modern for F Series but I have driven most of their Sedans and I can understand why they're withdrawing them from the US market. They're quite bad.

We took a road trip from Poughkeepsie to Niagra in a rented Ford Focus. It had a USB charge port in the center console that came out when we went to unplug the cable. This got me prodding about at the rest of the interior and most of it was too easily removable with my bare hands. It was scary to think who the whole passenger compartment might just explode in your lap with an accident.

I know many parts of the car are held together with retention clips and other tool-less mechanical fasteners but this Ford was exceptional. I don't know if it was down too the poor materials quality or the shoddy engineering of the fasteners but everything could be pulled apart with astonishingly little effort.

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

#94
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having owned both a GM and a Tesla, I'm amused by the idea that GM's build quality is better. I actually liked my GM a lot, but quality was lacking to say the least.

year make and model? I only ask, because honestly, I bought ( ordered and customized online really ) a new 2015 GMC Canyon and I love this truck like I've never loved another vehicle in my lifetime... and literally NOTHING has gone wrong with it, not even a loose screw... or burnt-out light bulb...

2005 Malibu. The side mirrors stripped their gears, the exhaust got a leak and needed complete replacement, the brake rotors got scored in a bizarre way that the shop couldn't understand, the tie rod ends went bad a couple of times, the instrument cluster stopped working spontaneously, then on my next drive started working equally spontaneously, the ABS system would occasionally go on strike for no apparent reason, from time to time it would somehow start badly and end up in a weird low idle state where it ran extremely rough, but the good ol' "turn it off and on again" would usually resolve it....

My Tesla has not been problem-free either, but it hasn't been that bad.

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

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having driven Fords, GMs and a Tesla, I'd say GM isn't international standard either, but Ford is definitely.

I've never driven a modern for F Series but I have driven most of their Sedans and I can understand why they're withdrawing them from the US market. They're quite bad. We took a road trip from Poughkeepsie to Niagra in a rented Ford Focus. It had a USB charge port in the center console that came out when we went to unplug the cable. This got me prodding about at the rest of the interior and most of it was too easily…

Wonder if that means it should be easily repairable? :)

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

#97
I believe that in this particular case a contractor could be a company of couple hundred (or 1000s) people or so, producing a sub-part of a car. Car makers mostly just put the car together - they do not manufacture parts.

Which begs the question: can Tesla afford to fire contractors? R&D on complex parts takes years, even at Tesla ...

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

#98
post #41

He's probably talking about consultants. I'm sure Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey (among others) infections have run rampant in just about all departments. Consultants are great when they're great but almost unimaginably inept and expensive when they're not.

And the ones that are inept, are experts at sounding exactly the same or better than the ones that are great, making the difference difficult to understand without equal expertise.

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

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never driven a modern for F Series but I have driven most of their Sedans and I can understand why they're withdrawing them from the US market. They're quite bad. We took a road trip from Poughkeepsie to Niagra in a rented Ford Focus. It had a USB charge port in the center console that came out when we went to unplug the cable. This got me prodding about at the rest of the interior and most of it was too easily…

Wonder if that means it should be easily repairable? :)

Maybe, but that would violate the DMCA. :P

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

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, a startup founder seeing a problem and having a clumsy, heavy handed, poorly thought out reaction is super refreshing. Hadn't been this refreshed since like, Friday.

you know he founded PayPal, right?

Which sold to eBay for $1.5b

His first company was acquired by Compaq for almost half a billion.

He’s listed by Forbes as one of the top 25 most powerful people on earth.

Tesla is a 15 year old company.

I feel like “startup founder” should not the operating phrase here.

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