Robert Reich, the former US labour secretary during the Clinton-era, took to Twitter to call out Tesla CEO, Elon Musk on his ethics as an employer. But Musk’s sharp tongue could not hold back and for the right reasons. Reich accused Musk of being a “modern day robber” for implementing a 10% pay cut for Tesla workers during the initial peak of COVID-19 pandemic while the company and the CEO’s wealth increased.
Tesla forced all workers to take a 10 percent pay cut from mid-April until July. In the same period, Tesla stock skyrocketed and CEO Elon Musk’s net worth quadrupled from $25 billion to over $100 billion.
Musk is a modern-day robber baron.
That’s quite an accusation that does not put the Tesla boss in good light.
However, Musk straightened things out to rectify Reich’s allegation. In his reply on Twitter, Musk had a quick witted comment:
All Tesla workers also get stock, so their compensation increased proportionately. You are a modern day moron.
Tesla, like most companies, was forced to close its Fremont factory in March because of the pandemic lockdown and social distancing rules. Musk argued with the Californian state’s leaders and even went as far as to file a lawsuit against them as Tesla production came to a halt. Reich took to Twitter again to ruffle Musk’s feathers about his legal filing and called the move "capitalism at its worst." The following day, the Tesla CEO retorted with a Russian comment that directly translated to "boring idiot."
It’s easy to become a target while you’re riding the crest of the wave, regardless of what you do. So, the real question lies in how do Tesla employees feel about Tesla. As with all companies, you get happy employees and unhappy employees. But because we like to keep things positive, we found a great article from a Tesla employee who shared his thoughts about working at the EV company.
He listed seven things he learned about working at Tesla and we summarized them here:
- Teslas Are Insanely Fun: I’ll never be a car person- but I could totally become an EV person.
- Tesla Is Not A Car Company: Tesla is NOT a car company. It’s a full-blown fossil-fuel curbstomp machine.
- The Employees Are Top-Notch: Welcoming, Smart, Open-minded, Scrappy, Passionate about building a brighter future. Elon has created a management pipeline that puts a premium on folks who embody all of these characteristics, and I can confirm from personal experience: It’s paying off BIG-time.
- The Work Environment Is Awesome: Ultimately, working at Tesla creates its own feedback loop of high energy and motivation in the office.
- Every Customer Becomes A Salesperson: When the customers ARE the salespeople, you don’t need to waste money on advertising.
- The EV-Industry Transcends Cutthroat Competition: Being part of a mission-focused company like Tesla brings about an interesting dynamic when it comes to competition.
- Tesla Is Becoming A Cultural Phenomenon: LOTS of people love technology, and LOTS of people love environmental sustainability. When Tesla came along and successfully combined these two teams into one, they became an absolute machine for viral online content.
Final Thoughts
I’ve always dreamt of working for a sustainability champion back in the states once I got home from my quarter-life crisis adventure…but I had no idea I’d have the opportunity to get my start WHILE traveling! This experience has been such a score, and I’m so incredibly thankful for it.
Read the full article here.
