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Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

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Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#81
post #8

If he wanted to, he could probably sue Tesla for tortious interference of his previous job, since he gave notice at the previous job because of them. Also, it really sucks that Tesla didn't offer him severance given that he was effectively laid off. Hopefully he can at least get unemployment.

I mean anybody can sue anybody for anything, but to win damages you'd have to prove that either Tesla intended to mess up his previous job or that they were negligent (based on a legal duty of care). IANAL, but this seems unlikely.

Exactly. At most you can claim damages if you signed a lease or something explicitly for the new job, but beyond that you are out of luck.

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most of the US, employment is "at will" [sic], meaning your employment can be terminated any time for any, or no cause.

Also, emoployees can leave company any time. And they leave companies on short notices! Cuts both ways!

Not sure why you're being downvoted for stating a fact. It may not be a good idea to leave on short notice, but employees are well within their rights to quit same-day or same-minute.

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#83

The same thing happened to me in late 2018. I was hired to write a compiler for deep learning (training) on Tesla's in-house hardware, under Peter Bannon. I resigned from the job I had at the time, and Tesla backed out of the contract shortly before my start date. Tesla is ruthless.

Isn't this promissory estoppel? Like they promised that you would start at a certain date, causing you to quit your current job. Then they withdrew the promise, causing you to be unemployed.

At the time I was not in a position to legally challenge Tesla. I realized I had been dealing with a bad company and took work elsewhere. But I will never forget what Tesla did to me.

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#84
post #8

If he wanted to, he could probably sue Tesla for tortious interference of his previous job, since he gave notice at the previous job because of them. Also, it really sucks that Tesla didn't offer him severance given that he was effectively laid off. Hopefully he can at least get unemployment.

Another possibility is that he regains his old job. I've seen that happen recently - guy left our org for a hotshot startup in a different domain, politics happened and his position was essentially rendered unviable. He rejoined our group and didn't lose status or reputation for his 1 month stint.

At least this guy didn't get hired before that happened. IMHO he's dodged a bullet. If he was good with his old place they'd probably be good to hire him back.

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#85
post #8

If he wanted to, he could probably sue Tesla for tortious interference of his previous job, since he gave notice at the previous job because of them. Also, it really sucks that Tesla didn't offer him severance given that he was effectively laid off. Hopefully he can at least get unemployment.

He would lose 99.999% of the time thanks to `at will` employment.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Good lawyers usually give free consultations, especially the ones that see nothing but huge payouts for taking cases like this.

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kinda goes against what OP is against though, no? If you have multiple offer letters, chances are multiple other companies have stopped their job search (especially if they don't want to lead on other candidates).

Not necessarily, sometimes companies will oversubscribe to offers, ie hand out multiple offers but only take one of them, because they know many people could decline so they don't want to be stuck with no one. Same philosophy on the employee side, not beneficial to ride everything on only one offer.

What companies do you know that do that (besides Tesla, apparently)?

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#89
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know lots of folks who hate(d) working there. Just adding my anecdata to yours.

Most people I know hate working anywhere, so that always seems like a bad metric to me on whether an employer is “good”…

At least one bar I know has a sign like the following in front:

  Hate your job? 
  There's a support group for that. 
  It's called everybody and it meets inside. 
(I guess you had to be there.)

Re: Tesla Rescinds Job Offer

#90
post #36

This is sadly a lot more common than people realize. It's drilled in your head that as an employee you should never ever renege on a job offer or accept a better one too soon because you are "burning bridges" and that is very bad, but it never works the same the other way around. Budgets change all the time. Departments go through reorgs. Projects get cancelled. "Hey but we have an open job offer" is never going to b…

I feel for this candidate and I’m sorry he has to go through this. However, candidates aren’t innocent in all of this either. I’ve been on the other side in the hiring seat where candidates accept an offer and then cancel in the days leading up to starting. This comes after closing out the remaining candidate pipeline and telling potentially qualified candidates that the position was filled. It’s not a good look to h…

And when they do that, do you not consider it wrong?
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