© Reuters. The richest man can’t stand it anymore, Tesla will lay off 10,000 employees, Musk: If he doesn’t come to work, he will leave
On June 3, the world‘s richest man and Tesla CEO Elon Musk suddenly said that the current economic situation is not optimistic, so Tesla needs to lay off about 10% of its employees and will suspend global recruitment.
Musk disclosed the news in an email to company management titled “Suspending All Hiring Worldwide”, saying he has a “super bad feeling” about the current economic situation and that Tesla needs to Cut jobs by about 10%.
At present, Tesla has 99,290 employees worldwide. If calculated according to the ratio of 10%, the number of layoffs will be close to 10,000. Previously, on May 22, Tesla China’s official account “Tesla Recruitment” published more than 100 job postings in Beijing and Shanghai.
On March 22, Musk at the opening ceremony of the German factory. Source: AP
Affected by the news of Tesla’s layoffs, the three major U.S. stock indexes fell collectively, and Tesla also fell all the way after the opening. As of 12:00 on June 3, the Dow fell 1.11%, the Nasdaq fell 2.79%, and the S&P 500 fell. 1.80%, Tesla once fell nearly 10%.
Since April 1, Tesla’s market value has evaporated by more than 30%, and as of 12:00 on June 3, it was $733.795 billion (about 4.89 trillion yuan).
However, Musk himself has retained his position as the world‘s richest man. As of the evening of June 3, Beijing time, Musk still ranks first on the real-time Forbes rich list, with a personal wealth of $218.2 billion (about 1.45 trillion yuan).
Is the U.S. economy in recession?
News of Tesla layoffs shocked the market.
CFRA analyst Nielsen said the timing of Musk’s email was “a bit odd” because Tesla is ramping up production at new factories in the U.S. and Germany: “I think Musk may be trying to plan ahead for a slowdown in the auto industry. .”
Credit Suisse analyst Levy said the news was “too surprising”, after all, the market has been optimistic about Tesla’s growth space.
Securities analyst Daniel Ives said that Musk and Tesla appear to be paving the way for a slowdown in deliveries this year, striving to remain profitable before the economic slowdown arrives.
Musk has repeatedly publicly downplayed the outlook for the U.S. economy. Source: AP
Recently, Musk himself has repeatedly published predictions of a recession in the U.S. economy. Speaking at a tech summit in May, Musk said the U.S. economy was likely to be in a recession, and he warned companies to pay attention to costs and cash flow.
“It’s going to be a tough time, I’m not sure how long the recession will last, maybe 12-18 months,” Musk said.
At the same time, Musk responded on social media that this kind of recession is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of capital allocation: “I’ve been through several recessions. If the boom lasts for a long time, it’s also time to throw money on fools. It will be a long time.”
Karlsten Brzesky, director of macroeconomic research at Dutch bank ING, said: “Many people have this bad feeling about Musk, and we expect the global economy to continue to cool between now and the end of this year.”
Not returning to the office is considered resignation
In addition to telling management to lay off employees, Musk also sent an email to tell employees that Tesla will end the home office policy next, and employees must return to the company to work, otherwise they will be considered resignation.
Musk wrote in the email: “Every Tesla employee is in the office for at least 40 hours a week. If you don’t show up, we think you have resigned.” He also added that if someone asks for special treatment, it needs to be approved by him.
Regarding this policy, Musk explained on Twitter: People who are unwilling to comply with the new rules can “pretend to work for other companies.”
Musk emphasized, “The higher the level of the company, the more important it is to let employees see you at work. Tesla develops and produces the most exciting and meaningful products of all companies on the planet, and will continue to be in the future. . This is not something you can do with a phone call.”
Musk is a workaholic, working almost all year, rarely taking vacations, and simply sleeping on the factory floor at some critical times in Tesla’s development. “Why do I live in factories so often? Because that way, people on the production line can see me working with them. If I didn’t, Tesla would have gone bankrupt.”
Tesla’s factory in California Source: AP
Musk has previously publicly expressed his opposition to remote work from home, tweeting: “The various measures to work from home during the epidemic have created the illusion that hard work is no longer necessary. The harsh reality is coming. .”
Jason Stormell, founder of the technology headhunting company, believes that Musk’s move is actually a layoff in disguise. If those employees who cannot return are considered to resign automatically, the company can save a severance fee: “He knows that with the current situation, There will definitely be employees who will not be able to come back to work, so that even severance pay will not be paid out.”
Musk even satirized some companies that insisted on working from home: “Of course, there are companies that don’t ask employees to go back to the office, but look at the last time they launched a great new product. It’s been a long time. “
Musk’s “must work in an office” rule, however, is at odds with the work culture of Twitter, which he intends to acquire for $44 billion.
In March of this year, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said that Twitter employees can continue to work from home “forever”: “The place where you feel most productive and creative is where you work. Want to stay at home Office, yes. Want to go to work every day? That’s okay. Some days at the office, some days at home? Of course you can.”