RSSGreen-vehicle manufacturer Tesla does dirty by its staff
By Angela Gunn | Published October 17, 2008, 7:30 PM
Tesla, the buzzed-about clean-tech electric car maker, has delayed its S-model sedan, demoted its CEO, and closed its Michigan office -- the last action, via blog post.
Even in a world were romantic breakups via text messages aren't uncommon, the message from company chairman Elon Musk has stirred outrage. Meanwhile, the nature of the dismissals -- the Rochester Hill, Michigan office housed the engineering team working on the new midrange ($60,000) vehicle -- raised eyebrows among some observers who see a pattern in canning the tech employees rather than the money guys.
Statements from Tesla indicate that the firm will concentrate on making its current Roadster two-seater "a positive cash flow, core product," according to the company's head of sales and marketing. The company will maintain its newly opened San Jose offices, where it still plans to manufacture its vehicles.
In his blog post, Musk was terse concerning the contributions of the Michigan staff, saying only that "Good communication, tightly knit engineering and a common company culture are of paramount importance as Tesla grows" and describing his wish that the company would adopt a "special forces philosophy."
In his blog, Paul Rako didn't hold back with his disgust at Musk's choice of layoff targets. "Any tech worker can read between the lines and see what is going on," he writes. "After thousands of hours of free overtime and I am sure 100s of all-nighters, the tech staff has made a workable electric vehicle. Now the finance guys that seem to run the world have decided to fire all the engineering staff and go into "harvest mode". They are blaming the economy and credit markets, but the real reason is that they mismanaged the project. But things are never the finance guy's fault. Ever."
Rako's post compared the carnage to Seagate's mass layoffs in the '90s, in which short-term financial gains were lost (and, many observers would suggest, irreparable damage done to a once-great brand) when the company realized it had no one left to design the next generation of products.
As for Musk's unorthodox means of communication, the (moderated) comments thread in that blog post focused on the machinery, not the message. 'Dave' pointed out that the company is getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop where large-scale financial bailouts are concerned: "There's a sad irony that while the US government approves $25 billion for the Detroit Big 3 to bail them out from their own greed and mistakes, Tesla is having to lay off staff and push back production schedules on much-need technology because of arbitrary hurdles to access its own (tiny by comparison) loan."
The first Roadsters were delivered to customers in February, and about fifty of the $109,000 sports cars have been sold. Musk plans to keep the company going during the current financial crisis in part by ramping up production on the Roadster to 1,800 vehicles.
The Michigan office employed 30 people; on Friday (two days after the layoff announcement), employees there were scheduled to see a list on a cork bulletin board in their offices detailing whether each employee's layoff was effective immediately or after a wrap-up period -- or if some might be offered positions in San Jose.
Now-former CEo Ze'ev Drori retains his seat on the board and assumes the title of vice chairman.
In his blog, Paul Rako didn't hold back
Who the hell is Paul Rako?
You didn't even bother to list any credentials as to why you chose this blogger to quote over, say, HHH1264@aol.com.
Why should we care what he thinks?
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|Tesla will be bankrupt before one of these actually makes it on the road. The first Tucker of the new millenium.
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|Um, what? "The first Roadsters were delivered to customers in February"
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|They've been *delivering* these things for a while.
The *real* story here is that they are delaying production of the economy (at least regarding price) coupe/sedan model. That's what's really going on here. Tesla can float for some time on it's sportster model, they've simply decided to pause development of the lower priced model (and lay off the employees devoted to it) until things start picking up again...which may not be all that long.
Magrathea, all over again... ;)
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|I used to like the concept of the Tesla Roadster, something more than blah average that was ecologically sound. Something like that - and the very fact that the Tesla Roadster was MORE than just a sporty looking "econo-box", it was an actual sports car that could run around all day (well not ALL day but you get the idea), with gas guzzling sportsters like Porsches, Lotuses and Vettes; WITHOUT spewing poisonous gasses or sucking huge amounts of gas...
I secretly yearned for the day when a more consumer priced version of this fantastic automobile would be introduced, something different enough to be unique but cost efficient as well as sporty.
yeah, I know that day will never happen but, hey, if i win the lottery, i will be choosing the Tesla Roadster :)
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|I don't think that column has been all that moderated. There are personal comments on Elon and the management and even an appearance from Martin Eberhard. I wonder if the blog moderator is a bit disgruntled?
My comment was looking at the bigger picture because there was too much of a focus on blaming Tesla management and not enough on what is going on in the wider economy and how the government could help if they choose to.
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|How very typical of the arrogant American greed machine claiming yet another victim of the corporate glitterati. It really disturbs me that yet another American innovation is going to be sold overseas and all instance of development will go to the purchaser instead of the true innovators. Just to put another dollar into the finance guys pocket(s). Shame should be the name of this country's corporate system, not leadership. That's all they seem to spread any more, it's one of the reasons this world is in the shape it is today. There isn't a corporate leader out there worth his weight in dead grass clippings, let alone someone to look up to that you could hold a candle to, and not see through his self important arrogance and greed. It all trickle's up to the top. What they don't seem to realize is that we have the knowledge, the power and the resources to destroy them at our will. Prepare for the second American Civil War to commence very soon!
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|"How very typical of the arrogant American greed machine" How typical of arrogant euro's to even think that this is an American thing. It's a typical World Corp thing not confined to just America. It's a mentality that has been prevalent in other parts of the world much longer than here in the US. Greed is Greed not matter what country your from.
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|And it really is a shame that these kinds of things have to happen to people who aren't even given a second thought as to their family's or what will become of them. It's just like the Iraqi war of aggression, thousands of families are destroyed for the benefit of one or two peoples pockets.
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|How typical of the idiots here who produce nothing, yet whine that others don't do it for them.
And so you geniuses have contributed what? Just think, you could reinvest all of the Jewish gold never returned and provide more than adequate capitalization for some new whiz bang development designed to overcome the limitations of physics instead of simply generating a new form of genocide each generation.
As others have said, the silence is deafening regarding internal financial issues with the comapny - or any other strategic issues.
All we have are asinine comments and assumption like those made by this idiot.
Yup, and electric cars are the answer huh? Yup, just move the point of generation of pollution in the form of electrical generation to another spot and wella! Its GREEN! What a dumb smuck. Ironically, a compressed natural gas vehicle would be cleaner and more practical.
So come on genius, tell us why Citroen, the French lemon maker hasn't solved the problem? Or has France and Germany simply sucked up to the Russians in their desire to keep the oil flowing in a modern day KeyStone Cops rendition after the Georgian invasion.
Just more whining by mediocre has beens who complain that the US hasn't saved your @ss yet again.
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|Benefit one or two people's pockets? Oh yeah! You must mean the scandalous technology for oil sandal and the private financial deals between France and Germany with Iraq as they turned a blind eye to the ongoing deaths of 100s of thousands of folks killed and gased by Saddam.
But then, the Euros have never had a problem with genocide have they? In fact, this is just anither chapter where in so many cases, they wrote the book.
So tell us who had to intervene in Bosnia? What's wrong, were the Euros too busy solving other problems elsewhere, like how to stuff
their pockets as others died? Or were you just too busy devising the next generation of innovative genocidal techniques? But for you its no longer simply a matter of technology - nope, its an ART form.
Or when 20,000+ died when the temperature hit 100 degrees F in France and the morgues were literally overflowing with bodies, but neither the French President, who was conveniently vacationioning in Canada, nor the French who were too busy on their vacations to return home to claim the bodies of their relatives - let alone be available to simply run a bath and let someone soak and cool their core body temperature and avoid death.....Oh sorry, a sore point I guess, as that assumes you are familiar with the concept of a bath.
Yup, its nice to recieve advice from someone so in tune with caring.
And do tell us about the ongoing centuries old tradition of human rights (or thaeir lack thereof) for the Roma (the gypsies for those not familiar with the term). Such moral superiority. Such idiocy.
And all because a company decides - for reasons unknown to any of us - to make internal changes in its staff and company orientation. But as our fine EuroBozo reminds us we should all remember that a company is a charity, not a business.
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|You Sir are just plan ignorant to whats really going on in the world. It's a pity as I'm sure your smarter than that.
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|Simplistic views always win the day.
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|Bet Musk got a sweet bonus for rewarding the hard work of his employees. Who doesn't like an extended vacation without pay?
Aren't the people who are able to spend over $100,000 on a car likely to be the ones who can easily afford the high gas prices?
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|I guess giwo referred to the usage or 'were' instead of 'where' in "Even in a world were romantic breakups"
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|"Breakups of romances" just looked wrong, and "relationships" is a horrid sort of word. Whaddya got?
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|Even in a world were romantic breakups
How about "where" instead of "were". :?
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|"Even in a world were romantic breakups"
Come again?
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|Yep, it's the classic blogger failing to spell check before posting mistake.
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