This week Tesla quietly fired anywhere from a few hundred to up to 1,000 employees, which included associates, team leaders and supervisors. Tesla says that the people were let go as a result of an annual review.
One former employee gave a few more details into what happened, “It’s about 400 people ranging from associates to team leaders to supervisors. We don’t know how high up it went.”
Mercury News also reported about the firing of Tesla employees, where Tesla says that the firings were the result of performance reviews, but one fired employee said he was never given a bad review.
According to a Tesla spokesperson, “As with any company, especially one of over 33,000 employees, performance reviews also occasionally result in employee departures. Tesla is continuing to grow and hire new employees around the world.”
Most of the individuals that were fired worked at Tesla’s Fremont factory and its headquarters in Palo Alto. While Tesla isn’t really giving any concrete answers to why the employees were fired, some are speculating that pro-union workers and slow Model 3 production could be some of the reasons.
Some factory workers have complained about work conditions and low wages, which lead to some employees developing a pro-union perspective. Some of the openly pro-union workers were fired this week and they believe that they were targeted, although Tesla denies the accusations.
Earlier this month Tesla also revealed that Model 3 production is far below Tesla’s goals, which could have also caused some heads to roll. Only 260 Model 3 sedans were built in the third quarter.
Source: Mercury News
