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Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

latimes.com

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Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#91

Post by vkou »

cinbun8 wrote: post #80
zaroth wrote: post #7

TFA is kind of a strange re-telling of an interesting story. It came into the public view after an article from Inc. about Musk's famous email telling people to break with the chain of command. [1] The HuffPo posted an article responding to Inc raising Balan's concerns [2]; > At the time Balan was working on the interiors design team at Tesla, where she identified and “tried … to solve two engineering issues,” she wr…

Recording internal meetings to raise an issue isn't the best way to deal with the situation. I'm not surprised she was let go. The company probably saw this as dangerous behavior.

Companies record their employees all the time, in order to have evidence for when they raise an issue with them.

I understand why they feel threatened when this sort of thing is turned around on them, though.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#92

Post by justanotherhn »

mgh2 wrote: post #90
justanotherhn wrote: post #89

This is hilarious, her gofundme is mostly funded by Tesla Shortsellers and they're not even hiding it... I haven't read her claims but this is amusing. Gregory Reyes $5,000 (shortseller) Donna Walker $1,212 (shortseller) NetflixAndLamp $1,000 (shortseller) DIP Harambe $500 (shortseller) Machine Planet $500 (shortseller) Paul Shust $250 (shortseller) Naked Shortseller $100 (shortseller) Oslo Skeptic $100 (shortseller)…

Can you provide the most prominent names? Being funded by short sellers does not imply her case is false: they can be independent, albeit the same goal ("your enemy is my friend"). PS: Tesla fans or stock holders could be the reason why this story was initially flagged

I have edited my original comment with a few which did not mark their donation as "private". P.S. I didn't say her case is not valid, simply that it's curious and amusing.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#93

Post by chongli »

justanotherhn wrote: post #89

This is hilarious, her gofundme is mostly funded by Tesla Shortsellers and they're not even hiding it... I haven't read her claims but this is amusing. Gregory Reyes $5,000 (shortseller) Donna Walker $1,212 (shortseller) NetflixAndLamp $1,000 (shortseller) DIP Harambe $500 (shortseller) Machine Planet $500 (shortseller) Paul Shust $250 (shortseller) Naked Shortseller $100 (shortseller) Oslo Skeptic $100 (shortseller)…

I'm not sure why that's so amusing. The justice system only requires the judiciary to be impartial in order to serve the public good effectively. Plaintiffs and defendants can be as biased as they want.

Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) successfully sued Gawker with the backing of investor Peter Thiel, who had a well-known grudge against them. That doesn't take away from the fact that Gawker grossly invaded people's privacy in order to turn a profit on harmful gossip.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#94

Post by kube-system »

ilaksh wrote: post #84

If something like this happens at such a company as Tesla, what's stopping it from happening at any company? It looks like one of the core issues is that it seemed to Tesla that a recall just might kill the company at that time. So they felt that in order to protect the existence of the company, they really needed to be quiet about the floor mats at all costs. They probably rationalized it as "well, how hard is it to…

It's so common that it doesn't normally make the news. This is just news because Tesla is involved.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#95

Post by buran77 »

cinbun8 wrote: post #80
zaroth wrote: post #7

TFA is kind of a strange re-telling of an interesting story. It came into the public view after an article from Inc. about Musk's famous email telling people to break with the chain of command. [1] The HuffPo posted an article responding to Inc raising Balan's concerns [2]; > At the time Balan was working on the interiors design team at Tesla, where she identified and “tried … to solve two engineering issues,” she wr…

Recording internal meetings to raise an issue isn't the best way to deal with the situation. I'm not surprised she was let go. The company probably saw this as dangerous behavior.

> she was let go

That's a very "euphemistic" way of putting it. Kind of like putting someone in a wheel chair could be described as "allowing them to tackle different challenges".

She was more than just let go, she was bullied, humiliated, demoted, threatened, retaliated against, and blackmailed among others. Evidence was tampered with, destroyed, or manufactured, along with quite the list of irregularities even judges observed.

There's nothing to justify that except an incredibly toxic company culture coming straight from a brilliant but extremely toxic leader. But people like him don't have to worry about any court. They can always buy their escape from a court of law with money, and buy their escape from the court of public opinion with charisma, PR, and their loyal following.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#96

Post by RivieraKid »

chimen wrote: post #74
GoToRO wrote: post #68

Good engineers must learn that while they spent the time learning their skills, other people spent that time learning how to steal others’ people work. If you are really good, you must start your own company. Much harder, I know.

And a good engineer usually does not make a good salesperson. Starting a company does not make a good engineer better nor does it guarantee a better path in one's career. On the contrary I would dare say.

That's obvious to everybody. The point is, co-owning the company you work for has some fundamental advantages. By the way, this wouldn't be true in a perfectly competitive market, it's only true thanks to market imperfections.

For example, in the company I work for, sometimes I slip into the mode of feeling like I "own" the product we're making, making an extra effort, being emotionally invested, etc. But then I remember, I would just be a fool who works for his employer for free. Also, achieving change requires a lot more effort and often fails, which can be demotivating. In general, I feel like I could run things substantially better if I had the power. Seeing the mediocrity at fairly successful companies makes me really think about working at a startup.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#97

Post by giantg2 »

endymi0n wrote: post #83
jtbayly wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most cases, sure. But did you see the evidence in the article about her reputation at work? She was quite obviously an appreciated employee all around.

You may be right, this case looks less than clear. I'm mostly playing devils' advocate here, as newspapers, lawyers and shortsellers usually have their own axe to grind and are continually searching for good David against Goliath stories. Just dropping in that having a toxic effect on the company and being respected / appreciated by peers are absolutely not mutually exclusive. Often times they rather go hand in hand…

If you are an executive, are you really playing devil's advocate?

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#98

Post by justanotherhn »

chongli wrote: post #93
justanotherhn wrote: post #89

This is hilarious, her gofundme is mostly funded by Tesla Shortsellers and they're not even hiding it... I haven't read her claims but this is amusing. Gregory Reyes $5,000 (shortseller) Donna Walker $1,212 (shortseller) NetflixAndLamp $1,000 (shortseller) DIP Harambe $500 (shortseller) Machine Planet $500 (shortseller) Paul Shust $250 (shortseller) Naked Shortseller $100 (shortseller) Oslo Skeptic $100 (shortseller)…

I'm not sure why that's so amusing. The justice system only requires the judiciary to be impartial in order to serve the public good effectively. Plaintiffs and defendants can be as biased as they want. Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) successfully sued Gawker with the backing of investor Peter Thiel, who had a well-known grudge against them. That doesn't take away from the fact that Gawker grossly invaded people's privacy…

I find it amusing because they find someone who has some sort of a problem with tesla and make them the jesus of their crusade against that company. "How could Elon (or Tesla) have done this?" in order to sway public opinion. They did this with when the plant sabotage employee a few years back, the diver guy who Elon called a pedo and every self proclaimed "whistleblower" as far as I can remember from 2015 when this stuff really got crazy.

They just want to make a buck and posture as if they have some moral quandry with the company or their leadership.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#99

Post by elisharobinson »

first of there is some dirt here , Tesla dropped the ball on this one. They made it personal and could have handled it more gently. But then again i have a bias towards TESLA and im more inclined to trust press release by lawyers which is legally admissible. There is no doubt she was traumatised by the sudden nature of it all. although i hope after all this PR spotlight she will have her name cleared and one of the many HN comments who are disgusted by the way Tesla handled this will recommend her for employment in their organisation.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#100

Post by ketamine__ »

clort wrote: post #10

There are lots of problems here and it seems to me that Tesla is being a bully. Cristina Balan has a fundraiser page, at https://www.gofundme.com/f/a86fmm-fighting-tesla-for-defamin... and there is some text there from her, setting out some facts as she has seen them.

Why is it written so poorly?
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