The world of electric vehicles has had a rude awakening on the morning of April 15, as major news broke about its most prolific automaker.
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As per leaked internal memo, Austin, Texas-based Tesla (TSLA) announced that they will be letting go of more than 10% of its global headcount in order to "prepare the company for [its] next phase of growth."
"There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle," CEO Elon Musk said in the company-wide email over the weekend.
"I would like to thank everyone who is departing Tesla for their hard work over the years. I’m deeply grateful for your many contributions to our mission and we wish you well in your future opportunities. It is very difficult to say goodbye."
On Elon's X, it's business as usual:
Despite the news making its way onto headlines all over the world, a very vocal group of netizens and Tesla fanatics are making an effort to downplay the news as business as normal.
In a post on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), a self-described "all-in on Tesla" investor and X user by the name of @CuriousPejjy wrote that single to double-digit workforce trims have occurred in recent years.
For those who are saying that $TSLA laying off employees is a bad big deal, let me smack you with some FACTS.$TSLA has laid off employees in:
— Pejjy (@CuriousPejjy) April 15, 2024
- 2017: 2% workforce
- 2018: 9% workforce
- 2019: 7% workforce
- 2022: 10% workforce
Every 2-3 years, Tesla cuts staff.
IT'S NORMAL.
"For those who are saying that $TSLA laying off employees is a bad big deal, let me smack you with some FACTS," @CuriousPejjy said.
"Every 2-3 years, Tesla cuts staff. IT'S NORMAL."
In another post, they point out that Tesla, unlike other tech giants like Google, are under a specific type of microscope and subject to scrutiny that other Silicon Valley giants do not face.
So let me get this straight...
— Pejjy (@CuriousPejjy) April 15, 2024
When $GOOGL, $AMZN, $AAPL, and others lay off staff, the stock goes up and gets viewed as a massive positive...
But when $TSLA does it, it's the exact opposite? HUH? pic.twitter.com/irFoljFBZ4
"So let me get this straight... When $GOOGL, $AMZN, $AAPL, and others lay off staff, the stock goes up and gets viewed as a massive positive...,"
"But when $TSLA does it, it's the exact opposite? HUH?"
In another post, X user and self-described "HUGE Tesla bull" by the name of @squawksquare also echoed this sentiment.
Of course $tsla would be down this morning. Would expect nothing less. Funny how when almost every other company announces layoffs, the stock always rises due to cutting expenses and improving the financials. Not here though. pic.twitter.com/mxmpYg8EIs
— squawksquare (@squawksquare) April 15, 2024
"Of course $tsla would be down this morning. Would expect nothing less," @squawksquare said on X. "Funny how when almost every other company announces layoffs, the stock always rises due to cutting expenses and improving the financials. Not here though."
A different conversation:
Over on Reddit, users have largely blamed the news on Elon himself, as users on alternative Tesla subreddits r/RealTesla and r/EnoughMuskSpam have expressed various types of criticism of Tesla's CEO.
In the comments below a post about the announcement on the subreddit r/RealTesla Reddit user u/ItalyExpat noted that the internal message sent by Elon felt very disingenuous, given Elon's recent dealings.
"That's gotta sound a bit hollow from a guy expecting a $56 billion pay package from said company," the user said.
Under the comments on the same post, another user by the name of u/So_ManyLlamas commented:
"What's the likelihood that Elon or his assistants had prompted ChatGPT with the following? "Write me a thoughtful but stern message to fire 10% of the company in less than 1000 words""
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In the comments below a post about the announcement on the subreddit r/EnoughMuskSpam, user u/GarysCrispLettuce said that "Enron Musk has really f**ked Tesla. F**ked it long time.," noting that the CEO's behavior on social media — most notoriously on "a social media platform that exposed him as a racist," has diminished the reputation of the EV automaker he runs.
Though user u/GarysCrispLettuce claimed that "This is the part of Musk's life where everything turns to s**t.," another user by the name of u/PassionatePossum agreed, but argued that "bad leadership" had more of a play into the events leading up to the current situation, noting that conventional automakers do not have the same problems that Tesla has by a country mile.
"I don't think most of Tesla's problems are due to Musk being a racist asshole. I think most problems are just caused by bad leadership. He was focused on pumping the share price with stupid vanity project like the Cybertruck or FSD instead of focusing on building a solid business," user u/PassionatePossum said.
"A good CEO would have been focused on a product roadmap that makes sense and to build everything on a common platform so that you don't have to start engineering everything from scratch."
"[In my humble opinion,] Tesla never really graduated from a workshop building prototypes to a real car company. I work in R&D and we can dream up a lot of crazy stuff. And a lot of things look great as a prototype but are not suitable for mass production."
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