Thousands of Tesla employees slammed the American multinational automotive and clean energy company after being sacked via an impersonal and seemingly automated email. The inconsiderate message has since been exposed online, scandalizing the internet altogether.
Taking to the “Mildly Infuriating” Reddit community on Monday (April 15), a user shared a screenshot of what he claimed to be “The Tesla layoffs email.”
Highlights
- Tesla sacked thousands via an impersonal email, sparking outrage online.
- Some employees found out about the layoffs when their badges didn't work, learning on arrival at work.
- Layoffs included engineers and associates, affecting global workforce by over 10%.
The email in question read: “Dear Employee, Today, we’re sharing a significant decision that impacts the entire organization, and you directly.”
The $505.99 billion corporation went on to highlight its rapid growth with multiple factories scaling around the globe, which meant that there had been multiple instances where different employees had similar roles or responsibilities.
Tesla went on to emphasize the importance of cost reductions and increasing productivity for the company’s next phases, inevitably resulting in reducing its headcounts globally.
“Unfortunately, as a result, your position has been eliminated by this restructuring,” the email concluded.
Redditors were quick to take notice of the lack of individuality and personal touch with the affected employees, as a person commented: “They could’ve at least popped in a name at the beginning of the template.”
With many mocking the email’s aloofness and accusing the company of using artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, someone else wrote: “Darn, just a generic letter too.”
Tesla faced backlash for an impersonal, automated layoffs email, sparking online outrage
Image credits: TED
Another Redditor chimed in: “Can’t even be bothered to address you by name. ‘Dear Employee’ might as well say ‘Dear Peasant.’”
An additional individual penned: “I knew from reading the first sentence that I could skip the entire second paragraph.
“Just a bunch of useless filler that the boots-on-the-ground people don’t care about.”
Tesla told staff it was laying off more than 10% of its workforce on Sunday (April 14), with some workers not even realizing they had been fired until they showed up at the company’s facilities, Business Insider (BI) reported on Monday (April 15).
The massive cuts reportedly impacted engineers and production associates alike. A worker at Tesla’s factory in Sparks, Nevada, USA, informed BI that employees faced about a two-hour line on Monday morning local time just to get into the facility as a result of badge check issues.
Two current Tesla workers who requested anonymity told BI that at the Nevada factory, the security team was reportedly scanning the badges of workers coming out of the shuttles that ferry people between the premises and nearby parking lots.
Some Tesla employees were unaware of their termination until arriving at company facilities
Image credits: The B1M
According to the anonymous staff members, security guards would typically inspect workers’ badges at the site but wouldn’t usually scan them directly.
As a result, on Monday morning, Tesla officials picked out colleagues who had been terminated and sent them back on separate vans, the BI informants said.
Three other former Tesla employees reportedly said workers at the Fremont factory, in California, were told by security that if their badges didn’t work they were no longer employed.
As per BI, Tesla employees who were terminated received notice via their personal emails on Sunday night, with their access to Tesla systems revoked.
Emails sent directly to dismissed employees reportedly said the cuts would be effective immediately and workers would receive information regarding their severance within 48 hours.
You can read the layoff email below:
Image credits: mildlyinfuriating
The same day Tesla announced the layoffs, at least two executives resigned from the company, BI reported.
Drew Baglino, the senior vice president of Tesla’s powertrain and electrical engineering, and Rohan Patel, the vice president of the company’s public policy and business development, said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that they had left Tesla as of Sunday.
Ezkel Love, who worked in the Austin area where Tesla’s Gigafactory employs about 20,000 people, told Kens 5: “I got an email saying I was terminated and they made a decision to let go 10% of the workforce.
“They’re supposed to be leading in innovation ... That would have been the best opportunity for me to learn manufacturing.”
In a leaked memo to Tesla staff on Sunday, CEO Elon Musk partially explained the layoffs, saying the company had "made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally," Electrek reported
"There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done," Elon wrote in the memo. "This will enable us to be lean, innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase cycle."
Terminated workers received notification via personal email with immediate effect and were promised severance details within 48 hours
Ezkel, who was hired recently to work on assembling Tesla Model Y, was terminated as part of the staff reduction at the Austin factory, according to his termination letter, though an email from Elon Musk (likely the one shared on Reddit) to employees indicated layoffs would be global.
“No warning at all. I don’t have a job ... Can’t pay my rent. So, I’ve got to find something else to do to make ends meet,” Ezekiel said.
Electrek Editor-in-Chief Fred Lambert had heard sacking rumors “since December,” telling the Texan news channel: "More January and February, where Tesla delayed a lot of performance reviews and reduced some salary bonds and took away some stock options.
“A lot of things that lead to layoffs.”
Tesla claimed the layoffs may be due to overhiring, but Fred hinted at the company's performance last quarter, explaining: “There has to be a few tens of thousands of vehicles that should have been sold and haven't been sold.
“That's worrying for Tesla investors.”
According to the editor, production for Tesla's next-generation electric cars, which are meant to be affordable, has been delayed because of the Cybertruck, a battery electric medium-duty full-size pickup truck.
Fred further stated: “Tesla might lose money for the first time in years.
“Now they want to make sure that doesn't happen in Q2 if they have a similar performance in terms of vehicle deliveries.”
Some employees expressed shock and financial concerns
Tesla had 140,473 employees as of December 2023; therefore, the 10% cut could mean that at least 14,000 people could be out of a job by the end of this year, CBS reported.
Shares of Tesla reportedly fell nearly 3% on Monday after the layoff news broke.
Tesla reported that it delivered 386,810 vehicles from January through March, almost 9% below the 423,000 it sold during the same period last year, as per CBS.
The company blamed the decline in part on phasing in an updated version of the Model 3 sedan at its Fremont factory.
Plant shutdowns due to shipping diversions in the Red Sea, along with an arson attack that knocked out power to its German factory, also curtailed deliveries, Tesla reportedly said.
"Musk will try and change the subject with the upcoming robotaxi event on Aug 8, (but) investors increasingly view the company for what it is: an automaker operating in an industry that's encountering myriad headwinds," analysts at Vital Information said in a note.
Between 2018 and 2020, Tesla accounted for 80% of electric vehicle sales in the US, but that figure fell to 55% in 2023 as other automakers rolled out electric cars, according to Cox Automotive.
Bored Panda has contacted Tesla for comment.
"They need to get rid of one person," a reader commented
