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

Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

electrek.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 396 posts

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#31

Post by neffy »

poster123 wrote: post #20
tempaccnt123 wrote: post #4

I'm sure this is at least partly tied-in to their ongoing, illegal efforts to crush labor organizing at their plants. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-nlrb/worker-testifi...

How many tech workers would like their terms of employment, including compensation, to be decided by negotiations between a union and a company?

I can recommend it. The way it works in civilised countries is that you can still attempt to negotiate your terms, however the union negotiates annual across the board increases, and critically circulates reliable information on what the salary ranges and compensation packages are. Which as you might imagine, makes it much easier to effectively negotiate.

They also provide additional insurances for things like glasses, funding for education, and a range of subsidised country cottages with outdoor hot tubs for summer holidays. Seriously, you guys are missing out.

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#33

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

organsnyder wrote: post #15
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #9

Friendly PSA: always negotiate severance. Companies can always be forced to restructure like this or even just choose to on a whim. Pressure from the board, hiring a new CTO who wants to bring in his or her own people, etc. etc. Always make sure you are happy with what type of offsetting compensation you’ll receive in this eventuality before taking the job, and consider it a huge timesaver if an employer passes on yo…

Easy to say for those of us with highly-demanded skillsets. My hunch is that a large portion of that 9% didn't have that luxury.

I understand it’s not always possible, but your response (which seems to always be the gist of the first response when I make a comment like this) is usually overstated.

You don’t have to have some crazy special skillset or seniority. You just have to politely say no to any prospective employer who won’t offer it and keep searching.

Yes, of course negotiating power is limited if you’re in dire straits & must take any job. Definitely sucks and I wish we offered better protection to candidates in that situation.

But many people just don’t even think to ask, even when they already have a job they are OK to stick with if they need to turn down a different offer.

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#34

Post by andruby »

IBM wrote: post #19

This is definitely the move of a company in the process of scaling up production of their mass market vehicle that their valuation hinges on. Definitely not about managing cash flow.

Are you missing a "/s"? Or do you mean that they are preparing for another round of funding and want to improve their valuation?

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#35

Post by privacypoller »

poster123 wrote: post #20
tempaccnt123 wrote: post #4

I'm sure this is at least partly tied-in to their ongoing, illegal efforts to crush labor organizing at their plants. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-nlrb/worker-testifi...

How many tech workers would like their terms of employment, including compensation, to be decided by negotiations between a union and a company?

How many tech workers are highly-specialized interchangeable resources to be utilized in the highest margin capacity until uneconomic? About that many.

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#36

Post by craig1f »

organsnyder wrote: post #15
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #9

Friendly PSA: always negotiate severance. Companies can always be forced to restructure like this or even just choose to on a whim. Pressure from the board, hiring a new CTO who wants to bring in his or her own people, etc. etc. Always make sure you are happy with what type of offsetting compensation you’ll receive in this eventuality before taking the job, and consider it a huge timesaver if an employer passes on yo…

Easy to say for those of us with highly-demanded skillsets. My hunch is that a large portion of that 9% didn't have that luxury.

Looks like the 9% were mostly management in redundant roles, not production.

100% of the articles I have read about Tesla have been completely fabricated hit-pieces, or like this one, completely misleading. I think that at this point, they deserve the benefit of the doubt unless you're willing to actually read the article.

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#37

Post by moolcool »

paulpauper wrote: post #6
whatok wrote: post #3

Claims no production staff were affected. Don't know the employee breakdown but imagine production is a huge portion of it. Hard to believe entire other divisions weren't completely eliminated if production not touched.

could be sales and marketing

I thought Tesla had no marketing dept?

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#38

Post by jfoutz »

icelancer wrote: post #5
tempaccnt123 wrote: post #4

I'm sure this is at least partly tied-in to their ongoing, illegal efforts to crush labor organizing at their plants. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-nlrb/worker-testifi...

>> illegal efforts Yet to be determined by a court. Precision in language is important, no matter how heated you are about a situation.

Is it imprecise?

I can make claims about my worldview. I say the sky is blue. you say the sky is white (cloudy). we can argue about it, but there's no reason for either of us to change our opinion till we look out the window and see what color the sky is.

The problem with your standard of saying nothing is illegal till a court rules on it, is we require someone accuse another to trigger the court determination of fact.

in my very humble opinion it's perfectly reasonable to call something illegal if you genuinely believe it's illegal, regardless of status as a lawyer. But once the court has ruled, you need to change your opinion, or you're a crackpot. (Or, perhaps, the court is corrupt, but that's well off into crazy person land)

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#39

Post by jonknee »

stephengillie wrote: post #14

> It means that Tesla could let go over 3,000 employees in this round of layoffs. > The CEO also confirmed that Tesla didn’t renew its contract with Home Depot to sell its energy products at their stores. Tesla energy advisors were supposed to be at 800 Home Depots across the US earlier this year. If they had 3.5 employees per store, and a team of 200 managing the entire effort, these layoffs could be attributed enti…

If that was the case they definitely would have noted it. Musk said "In addition to this company-wide restructuring, we've decided not to renew". He then went on to say the majority will be given the opportunity to move to other Tesla retail locations.

It reads more like the cuts don't include the Home Depot related staff (who surely work hourly + comission anyway, these are cuts to salaries positions).

Re: Tesla is laying off ‘about 9%’ of its workforce as it ‘restructures’ the company

#40

Post by vkou »

stevievee wrote: post #23

Tesla and SpaceX are businesses and I never understood the public fandom behind them and Elon Musk. 3,500+ people losing their jobs is pretty significant for a leader who touts altruism as one of his top motivators.

It also speaks of a colossal failure in management. Either they were way off the mark in their hiring, or in performance management, or they have unreasonable expectations of their employees. If you are smart at hiring good people, there no way that 9% of them are producing negative value.
Post reply on HN