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Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

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Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#41

Post by InitialLastName »

InitialLastName wrote: post #34
grecy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then one day he'll announce a competition for children to win golden tickets to visit his grand factory I feel like this is exactly the kind of quirky thing he'd do anyway, without all that negative stuff.

"Every car has a chance of having a winning ticket in the glove compartment" The only problem is that then they actually have to manufacture enough cars to drive a competition like that.

Not to mention the lobbying costs of making states change their driving age limits so that children can buy cars.

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#42

Post by pjc50 »

TomMarius wrote: post #36
svantana wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as soon as anyone mentions unions, it's all over Isn't there a technical solution to this? Something like an outwardly anonymous social network with "proof" of employment from LinkedIn, where you can pledge to unionize once participation reaches critical mass for your workplace. Yes laws are better, but this could be a decent workaround.

Why would laws be better? I absolutely don't see how any law could be better than something the people did themselves. Comparable - maybe, but a law is usually way more expensive in the long run and not exactly flexible - and if you were from eastern European state you would know how unions work here (they mostly don't).

Generally in order for unions to exist at all they need a certain amount of protection from reprisals; union organising needs to be a protected activity.

Surely the big Eastern European union success story was Solidarity? Although I can understand how unions would struggle to operate in the post-communist era.

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#43

Post by baldfat »

pjc50 wrote: post #18
baldfat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at-will employment laws I just don't get how we just can't over turn them politically state by state in State Elections. How is this not a thing? I live in an At Will State (PA) and it pretty much sucks to have the knowledge I can be fired for any reason and sure I still can sue but I can still lose even though I am 100% in the right.

There's going to be a lot of money thrown at propaganda to convince voters that requiring employers to treat employees fairly will reduce jobs. And as soon as anyone mentions unions , it's all over. Every (right-of-centre) American knows that they're the only hardworking person in the country and the entire rest of the workforce is lazy good-for-nothings who need the constant threat of firing to achieve anything. /s

> And as soon as anyone mentions unions

Can we make it mandatory for everyone that is anti-Union to have to report to work on Labor Day and also they need to work the previous Saturday since it was normally a six day work week before Unions?

I still don't understand American working force's love affair with the filthy rich individuals and corporations. I am constantly told, "This is just how economy works" from my Father-In-law and other "conservatives."

When I mention that we as the working class are getting less and less of the GDP pie and more is going to the corporations and rich. The feeling is this has always been that way. I immediately say "I'm talking percentage" and sadly the average American is stuck at a 4th grade math level and I guess 4th grade doesn't cover the meaning of percentages.

The filthy rich's best warriors are conservative leaning voters right now and I have no idea how that will ever change.

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#44

Post by TeMPOraL »

spuz wrote: post #9

One day he will catch an employee stealing, fly into a rage and fire the entire workforce. He'll lock the iron gates to the factory and sequester himself from the public eye for several decades sparking all kinds of rumours about his fate. Then one day he'll announce a competition for children to win golden tickets to visit his once grand factory and we'll finally discover the real story of Elon Musk and his Gigafact…

There a was /r/WritingPrompts thread about this. Here's a nice story:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/6i5aef/wp_a...

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#45

Post by pjc50 »

TomMarius wrote: post #39
pjc50 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too easy to infiltrate, too difficult to enforce participation internally. And you've got to advertise it somehow to the workforce. I don't think it's achievable without outside help and political organisation.

What is not achievable? We're talking about collective bargaining, how is that not achievable without outside help and involving the government? People got it working just fine 100 years ago... Of course back then laws were not favoring corporations that much (in my country where it worked then, not the USA).

Getting collective bargaining started requires assembling the collective - this is a lot harder to do if the employer can just fire anyone seen organising.

Traditionally bootstrapping into a situation where union organising could happen safely and peacefully required a period of violence on the picket lines. There used to be quite a lot of this in America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_th...

These days it's even harder in some ways; the more "virtual" an organisation is, the easier it is for the company to just disband and restart it and the harder it is to picket. It's not clear if the various strikes against Uber by its workers have achieved anything.

(someone is downvoting you, but it's not me!)

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#46

Post by withhighprod »

Imagine a bunch of equally capable people work 9-9-6 with lower pay. Now I know why China’s engineering and manufacturing growth is wild. No bullshit, take your money and get shit done. You complains? Look, thousands lined up outside.

Yeah China nowadays practice social Darwinism

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#47

Post by withhighprod »

wpietri wrote: post #23
taneq wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This story is a good reminder not to do this. The company will usually not return the favour, you rarely get properly rewarded for crazy hours, yet it has a major impact on your health (both mental and physical) in the long run. Not worth it. And yet it's also a perfect example of the one time it does make sense to do so, which is when you own a decent chunk of the company that you're doing it for. > No wonder thin…

I would be amazed if it were sustainable for even that long. My recollection is that it's a couple of weeks before productivity ends up back where it would be if you were just working reasonable hours. And then you rapidly descend into less and less productive states. (There used to be a great presentation with linked research about this here [1], but their website seems shaky.) I think it's an especially bad idea at…

It’s pretty much China’s mode in terms of the workload, and yes it’s sustainable as long as your population structure is healthy

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#49

Post by mhermher »

purplethinking wrote: post #7

It strikes me that many very successful people are incredibly smart and driven but seem to have the emotional maturity, or personal introspection, of a 10 year old. Maybe it's just a necessary combination for this kind of success, but it's also a bit paradoxical. Case in point: buying 5 mansions in Bel Air when you spend all your time at work, literally sleeping under your desk. Another is insisting on burning the ca…

He doesn't actually spend all his time at the factory. He's mostly in LA. There are people on Twitter who track the flights of his private jet. He's mostly in LA, he'll go to the bay area maybe for a day a week. More rarely to Reno. If he's spending all his time working, it's at SpaceX of anything. But more likely he spends his time at home searching his own name on Twitter.

The insane work hours stories are just part of the mythology.

Re: Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell

#50

Post by chrisseaton »

baldfat wrote: post #16
dkersten wrote: post #5

Yay for at-will employment laws... :-( > Over the previous year, he had been living out of a suitcase, putting in 13-hour days, seven days a week. This story is a good reminder not to do this. The company will usually not return the favour, you rarely get properly rewarded for crazy hours, yet it has a major impact on your health (both mental and physical) in the long run. Not worth it. > It was not a 9 to 5 company.…

> at-will employment laws I just don't get how we just can't over turn them politically state by state in State Elections. How is this not a thing? I live in an At Will State (PA) and it pretty much sucks to have the knowledge I can be fired for any reason and sure I still can sue but I can still lose even though I am 100% in the right.

> I just don't get how we just can't over turn them politically state by state in State Elections. How is this not a thing?

Do most people want to overturn them? I think you're assuming that start state and it's perhaps not the case.

> I can be fired for any reason

And you can also leave for any reason. It's symmetrical. You don't have this right in some countries - I'd be careful about volunteering to give it up.

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