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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

#5

Post by dkersten »

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. People were already working hard; now Musk was implying they needed to do more.

No wonder things were going to shit. Nobody can do good work if they don't get enough rest and have too much stress.

> Three months after that, it would report profits of $312 million, well beyond Wall Street’s expectations.

How much of this money did the employees get for all the overtime they were forced to work?

> Tesla, ... that some aspects were “overly dramatized,” “abbreviated,” and “ultimately misleading anecdotes that completely lack essential context.” ... “Elon cares very deeply about the people who work at his companies. ...

For the sake of everybody working for him, I really really hope this is true and not just PR firefighting and that the story misrepresented what actually happened. I'm not convinced, based on Musk's twitter outbursts and such, but I still hope this story is mostly false.

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

#7

Post by purplethinking »

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 candle at both ends by sleeping 4 hours a night, when it has been proven beyond doubt that it's extremely counter-productive to do so, both in terms of mental ability and overall health.

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

#9

Post by spuz »

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 Gigafactory.

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

#10

Post by Aromaisn »

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.…

When working for Tesla I can only assume the dynamic is different. For many it IS worth it, and will work crazy hours without recompense, because in their eyes it pushes humanity further forward. They work for the joy of innovation.
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