Peter Clowes listed his role as "Layoff survivor" on his social media accounts. Clowes joined the company in the spring of 2020 but is no longer with the company. He quit yesterday because he no longer had any incentive to stay and because he hates Musk, but also because he didn't want to ruin the brand.
A lot of Clowes's colleagues felt the same. While they weren't part of the 50% of employees who lost their jobs at the end of October, they were given an ultimatum by Musk. He told them that they could either work long hours at high intensity or leave the company with three months of compensation.
Musk was hoping that some of the expensive employees would choose to leave the company. Musk told investors he might slash 75% of staff before taking over the company, so whether he is in shock, having cut into the muscle of the company or is celebrating the success of his plan is only something Musk and his inner circle know.
The numbers are amazing to a lot of people. According to the New York Times, at least 1,200 full-time employees just handed in their keys. Clowes suggested that the number could be even higher. He wrote that 85% of his colleagues were laid off in October and that 80% of those who remained opted out yesterday.
So many people walked out with him, isn't that what strikes us? The fact that all of the employees didn't leave raises questions about who Musk thought would stay around. It seems like a flawed business strategy if he wanted only those people to kill themselves.
If Musk wanted to hold onto anyone else, he would have had to offer a carrot. There were only sticks and lots of them.
He left because he didn't know what he was staying for. I used to stay for the people, the vision, and the money. All of those were completely different.
He would have been on-call constantly with little support for an indeterminate amount of time on several additional complex systems.
He left because he didn't like Musk's management style, which Clowes thinks could have been avoided if he hadn't been operating in the dark. Musk has yet to share a vision for the platform with employees. Clowes wrote that there was no five-year plan atTesla. It's nothing more than what anyone can see on the social networking site. It is coming for those who stayed, but they had to sign away the offer before they could see it. Loyalty test.
There has been a lack of communication from the top. Clowes wrote that staffers were concerned that adult content could become a part of the offerings. Clowes referred readers to a story about a Washington Post story about Musk's reported discussions with employees about monetization of adult content on social media.
There was no plan for those who stayed. It wasn't clear whether to stick it through the storm or not. Just trust us with our words.
Clowes was living in a world where his friends were gone, the vision was murky, and there was no financial upside. Would you do that? Would you sacrifice time with your kids over the holidays for the chance to make a rich person richer or would you take the out?
Musk anticipated that you would take the out. A person would think.
Will he be able to build back with who is left before the caves in?
All Rights Reserved © 2024
