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'Felt like Wolf of Wall Street': Ex-Tesla worker recounts 'people crying' in the lobby amid layoffs


‘It felt a lot like Wolf of Wall Street’: Ex-Tesla worker recounts ‘people crying’ in the lobby and says he was ‘instantly surprised’ at being laid off despite only working at firm for three months

  • ‘I recalled the scene from The Wolf of Wall Street when the company gets disbanded and everyone’s crying,’ the ex-IT worker said 
  • CEO Elon Musk said in June that 10 percent of salaried workers would be cut, but also that the company would continue to hire hourly employees
  • ‘I was instantly surprised,’ he wrote. ‘I just assumed it would be someone else getting laid off since I was recently hired
  • Despite being laid off, the former employee said he ‘really likes’ Musk and believes the tech billionaire is ‘doing good things for the world’  

A former Tesla employee described the day he was laid off as being a lot like The Wolf of Wall Street and said workers were crying in the lobby.

The anonymous ex-IT worker was employed at the electric vehicle facility in Fremont, California, for only three months when the news arrived – mere weeks after CEO Elon Musk had told employees that 10 percent of salaried employees would be laid off. 

‘I recalled the scene from The Wolf of Wall Street when the company gets disbanded and everyone’s crying,’ he told Business Insider, explaining that there were several red flags on the day he was laid off.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk, pictured above, announced in June that layoffs were coming for 10 percent of salaried workers - but also noted the firm would continue to hire hourly employees

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, pictured above, announced in June that layoffs were coming for 10 percent of salaried workers – but also noted the firm would continue to hire hourly employees

When he arrived at work, he noticed that his supervisor was already online with her boss before he even logged in; shortly thereafter, his supervisor came in and dropped off her bags without saying anything to him.

Another colleague then told him that someone else who’d worked at Tesla for years was laid off the day before. 

‘Then I got an email from my supervisor asking if I could join her in a meeting room and that we needed to chat for a bit,’ he explained in a first-person essay. ‘I knew right then they were going to let me go.’

He was then brought into a room with his supervisor, who had already logged into Zoom with another manager and someone from human resources. 

The former IT worker had only been employed for three months at Tesla's facility in Fremont, California, pictured above

The former IT worker had only been employed for three months at Tesla’s facility in Fremont, California, pictured above

‘I was instantly surprised,’ he wrote. ‘I just assumed it would be someone else getting laid off since I was recently hired. Why go through the trouble of hiring me just to let me go?’

There was already someone from security waiting with all his belongings when he left the room.

‘There was a handful of people crying when I got to the lobby,’ he explained to Business Insider.

'The kicker is that I actually really like Elon Musk - I just wish he would listen more,' the former worker explained. Model Y cars are pictured above during the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany

‘The kicker is that I actually really like Elon Musk – I just wish he would listen more,’ the former worker explained. Model Y cars are pictured above during the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany

‘I walked outside and saw through the building windows that even more people were in meeting rooms, holding tissue boxes and wiping their tears away. 

‘I recognized some of them were colleagues who were on work visas, so I don’t know what their situation looks like now.’

The company cut off his email access by midnight that evening. 

The laid-off IT worker lamented that he’d made it through four interviews just to get hired for the role – a fairly standard practice in the highly competitive world of Silicon Valley jobs. 

Musk has previously explained that even though salaried workers have been laid off, the company is still hiring hourly workers and that the overall headcount would only drop by about 3.5 percent. 

‘The kicker is that I actually really like Elon Musk – I just wish he would listen more,’ he explained. 

‘A lot of people were unhappy with him changing the work policies. 

‘And his goals are really big — I’ve seen employees sleeping on the couches in the factories because they’re working 12-hour days, four days a week to meet their goals. And it’s quite taxing on their bodies to work like that all day.

‘But still, I think that the company and Elon Musk are doing good things for the world.’



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