Tesla Owners Online Forum banner

Layoffs question

3K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  garsh 
#1 ·
Just heard the news about Tesla layoffs this morning. Any idea where those are coming from? I mean it wouldn't make sense to take people off the production line, and given the apparently sad state of Support lately (see Rich Rebuilds' utter cluster-cuss trying to buy a used Model X on YouTube), I think punting support staff would be a huge mistake... who might they be letting go?
 
#2 ·
Tesla has made very little in the way of 'mistakes' if you think about it so I'm quite certain this is a properly considered restructure plan. It is also a chance for Tesla to increase headcount to address curreent bottlenecks so overall it should work out well.
 
#3 ·
they did the same last year. Like many other large businesses, I think they will annually remove the lower x% of employees and bring in new. It may not sound great, but from a business perspective, it isn't all that bad either. When it is known this happens each year, it identifies employees to do their best.
I've worked places where there were co-workers who were crap employees, and they were there year after year dragging everyone else down, and making the others wonder why that person was not fired.
 
#12 ·
they did the same last year. Like many other large businesses, I think they will annually remove the lower x% of employees and bring in new. It may not sound great, but from a business perspective, it isn't all that bad either. When it is known this happens each year, it identifies employees to do their best.
I've worked places where there were co-workers who were crap employees, and they were there year after year dragging everyone else down, and making the others wonder why that person was not fired.
No sane company does this (commonly known as "stack ranking") any more. People quickly realized that the best way to survive rank and yank is to make your coworkers look bad, play politics, and cut deals. One thing it does not do is incentivize anyone to do their best work, and top talent will avoid your company like the plague.
 
#7 ·
I tried to find the name of Tesla's VP of Customer Service or the equivalent this week. I saw a reference to someone who left last year, but not a current person, or even a listed position. Is there one? Anyone want to volunteer?
 
#8 ·
A lot more companies downsized in Dec/Jan than Tesla. GM closed entire factories and laid off thousands. Verizon shut down entire divisions. I'm actually more concerned about what's coming economically than a handful of people let go by Tesla, it looks a lot like these companies might know something we don't.
 
#14 ·
Ah, Jack Welch. At GE, I had to participate in "paired comparisons" - who would you rather keep, John or Mary? Go through the roster, perform enough iterations, and someone winds up on the bottom of the totem pole. The first few times, that person probably should leave. Then it's not. Brutal. I got out of management, since "span" became a thing. I later quit to pursue a second career, but didn't tell anyone. Took GE a few years to figure it out. ;)

But that was in the environment of reductions, not increases. When you're hiring like crazy, I suspect there are always good candidates for leaving. I'd lay off the bottom 100% of customer service people, starting with the managers.
 
#15 ·
My entire organization eventually wound up ranked each year. It was very helpful. I would do a linear curve fit. Generally the top curved up above the line. I was happy with that. Those guys often had skills only a few people in the world had. The bottom rarely curved down. Often what I had was a dip with the 3 to 5 year guys. I would use that to show why there was a need for a special raise since new college grad salaries were rising faster than their's had. I also looked for anomalies. A guy well below the line needed a big kick up. A guy way above the line (except at very top) was someone to keep an eye on. It generated a low raise and I would look over a few years to see if it was a pattern. It was common to have a 3 to 5 year post college guy up with 10 and 15 year engineers. It was usually an indication that he was a rising star that needed to be watched, nurture and compensated accordingly. The process helped prevent the quiet overachiever from being over looked. If a layoff occurred it wasn't used to automatically cut the bottom guys. They might be new college grads ranked there due solely to lack of experience. It did help management see the people who were not growing and who were being passed by.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top