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

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

#231

Post by neffy »

adventured wrote: post #127
neffy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 glasse…

And here we are, US tech workers dramatically out-earn all other nations except for Switzerland. The average programmer in the US earns 30% more than they do in Norway (a particularly rich nation); and ~75% more than in Sweden. Apparently the way your 'civilized' nations work, is they pay labor a lot less. France, infamous for their powerful unions, has enjoyed annual wage growth about 80% lower than the US over the…

I've worked in the USA as a developer. I wouldn't do it again for any amount of money. Money is an imperfect measure of total value. The total value to me of my comfortable home, full medical insurance regardless of employment status, short commuting distance, 7 weeks of paid holiday, well I won't bore you with all the details.

Just the amount of time saved in not having to argue with US medical insurance companies about fully insured bills, is worth it to me. So yes, I'll take civilisation - when I add it all up, I not only earn more here, but I actually have some spare time to spend it in.

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

#232

Post by fmihaila »

jonknee wrote: post #224
fmihaila wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have ~$2.8b in the bank, so that's about a year if things continue like they have been, less if they hit a snag. More if they succeed in ramping up the Model 3 production.

Yes, and people who are going bankrupt will also have their problems alleviated if they suddenly get a better job. That has nothing to do with whether or not there is a cashflow problem in the first place. I'm rooting for them, but Tesla is certainly in financial trouble.

> Yes, and people who are going bankrupt will also have their problems alleviated if they suddenly get a better job.

If people going bankrupt have marketable skills and are doing everything in their power to find a job in a hot market, I would be brave enough to lend them some money for the transition.

My point is that Tesla's success in ramping up production is not as improbable as you make it sound. They are focussing all their resources on this goal, and at least to my mind, they are likely to succeed.

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

#233

Post by sonaltr »

usaphp wrote: post #100
mtgx wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has already admitted in the email to the company that this was a cost-cutting decision: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1006597562156003328 I also think that this move was mandated by the board when it recently voted for him to remain chairman (maybe not the firing per se, but that Tesla becomes profitable ASAP).

The reply below in a feed from someone called Eleonmusk which I initially thought is Musk himself, offering bitcoins after registering in some scam event...lol

yes, me too.

The russian letter n and the twitter interface together make it a bad combination.

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

#234

Post by foepys »

swampthinker wrote: post #225
danso wrote: post #24

Musk tweeted out the layoff email he sent: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1006597562156003328

Wow, that fake crypto scheme tweet under his official tweet had me fooled for a second.

The fact that Twitter cannot put a single person up to delete a few dozen scam tweets every time a off celebrity tweets and ban a few accounts speaks volumes about how much they don't care about their users.

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

#235

Post by rconti »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #173
dalbasal wrote: post #135

Just reading the first few comments.... I really don't get the Tesla hate. Is it hacker-ish contrarianism? Have they done something? What's the deal HN, why are we cheering against the home team? Overall Musk has been pretty straightforward and explicit with what he's doing. Tesla (and spacex) set extremely ambitious goals, like none of their competitors do. They take big risks. They're not interested in reducing ris…

I never understood the fanboyism on HN. Tesla builds electric cars with a subpar autopilot. They are nice cars but it's far from revolutionary. Tesla is not SpaceX. Tesla is not Apple, the car industry is not Nokia. Many people on HN seem to be confused here. I do think SpaceX should be renamed Tesla though, it would help selling Tesla cars.

I actually think the Apple comparison is quite apt; it's the novel application and extension of existing technologies into desirable consumer-level products. Not an Apple product/feature announcement goes by without a chorus of people shouting about how it's not really an invention because some other company already has it buried in their product. Can't the same be said about virtually everything Tesla is doing in the electric car space?

And yet, in both cases, there is something much more compelling about it than the competitors' products. It doesn't matter if you're a fanboy, an anti-fanboy, or somewhere in the middle-- from where I sit, they both have a similar niche where they stand out, and get excessive press coverage for both the good and bad things they do.

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

#236

Post by JumpCrisscross »

chasely wrote: post #205
DiabloD3 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't even aware they HAD a contract. My local Home Depot has zero mention of any product Tesla makes.

I was approached by a Tesla contractor in Home Depot on a few days ago. It was honestly not a good experience. For one, I was approached cold. I too had no idea that they had this agreement, so I was looking at something when someone came up and asked me something like "what type of project are you working on?" So I naturally just described what I was doing and before realizing this was not a HD employee. He asks me…

Huh, my Dad was complaining about random salespeople at Home Depot to explain his driving out to OSH. I had assumed another customer just pissed him off.

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

#237

Post by vkou »

compiler-guy wrote: post #208
vkou wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or the world changed around them in unpredictable ways. Or you took a risk that didn't pan out, but if it had, you needed these people.

That's possible - but has it, though? Are external factors really to blame?

Tesla isn't exactly in a Blackberry vs iPhone situation.

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

#238

Post by jVinc »

jonknee wrote: post #28
gk1 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given they admitted to over-relying on automation, I doubt they'd be cutting production staff now. It's not difficult to find 9% of the workforce in other departments: sales, marketing, operations, engineering, etc.

I think most companies would have a hard time finding 3,500 people to fire and not have it effect anything. Especially ones that describe themselves as a "growth company".

Most companies would have a hard time finding that many people to fire because they weren't that big. Most companies would have no problem finding 1 in 10 to fire in a downsizing.

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

#239

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nickik wrote: post #73
jonknee wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they running hot? They're in serious financial trouble and have been unable to meet self-imposed production levels. Now they're laying off thousands of people.

They are not in financial trouble. Most people are only skeptical if they can do it without raising capital. However everybody agrees that they both have many costumers waiting and would be able to raise capital. Nobody believes that Tesla is in real real serious troupe.

> They are not in financial trouble. Most people are only skeptical if they can do it without raising capital.

I agree, they are not in financial trouble. Being dependent on a near-term capital raise, however, is financially perilous. Lots of companies were waiting for the fall fundraising season when Lehman went bankrupt.

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

#240

Post by mmagin »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #236
chasely wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was approached by a Tesla contractor in Home Depot on a few days ago. It was honestly not a good experience. For one, I was approached cold. I too had no idea that they had this agreement, so I was looking at something when someone came up and asked me something like "what type of project are you working on?" So I naturally just described what I was doing and before realizing this was not a HD employee. He asks me…

Huh, my Dad was complaining about random salespeople at Home Depot to explain his driving out to OSH. I had assumed another customer just pissed him off.

Yeah, I had this experience a couple of years ago with someone trying to sell kitchen cabinet re-facing.
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