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Ex-Tesla Employee: Elon Musk Is Running an Absolute ‘Circus’

Last Updated September 23, 2020 12:52 PM
Lawrence Meyers
Last Updated September 23, 2020 12:52 PM

When it comes to assessing a company’s culture, you always want to listen to the rank-and-file employees. In the case of Tesla, one such employee has gone on the record and eviscerated how Elon Musk and his lieutenants are managing the $42 billion company.

A video interview with a former Tesla employee, posted on the Tesla fan website LikeTeslaKim.com, should give every Tesla owner and investor pause. The employee describes working inside Tesla as “a circus.”

The Fish Stinks From Elon Musk’s Head

Tyson is a 44-year-old father who was a Tesla fanboy and he went to work for Tesla, was fired after just a year on the job, and remains a fanboy of the car. However, he expressed deep skepticism regarding the viability of the company in the long term.

He described Elon Musk as being a disruptor for the sake of being a disruptor. Apparently, Elon Musk was determined to do everything different from the way traditional car manufacturers do them, even if some of these traditional methods had been proven to work for decades.

Tyson also indicated that there is a tremendous amount of redundancy at Tesla, numerous managers don’t know what they’re doing, and too much needless bureaucracy.

This should come as no surprise considering the guy running the company, Elon Musk, seems to be far more concerned with making outlandish promises and predictions than actually managing the company.

He also seems to enjoy spending time at other ventures like SpaceX more than paying attention to what’s going on inside Tesla.

Elon Musk Has No Vision Regarding Execution, Only Results

tesla sign
Elon Musk may be visionary, but it doesn’t sound like he’s great at execution. | Source: REUTERS / Mike Blake

The problem with a company when it has cult-of-personality culture is that managers and employees are often left without any real direction. Elon Musk seems to be more interested in a vision of results than a vision of execution. And if he doesn’t have a vision of execution, why would anyone else at Tesla?

One shocking revelation was that Tyson said that he wouldn’t be surprised if 25% of test employees are infiltrators and saboteurs from other traditional car manufacturers, who are deliberately trying to wreak havoc within the company.

Another revelation that was not surprising at all, based on reports of Elon Musk cracking the whip on employees in the same employees working in the near-sweatshop conditions, is that the work environment at Tesla is getting progressively worse.

A lot of Tyson’s former coworkers said they are waiting for their options to vest at which point they will leave the company.

Worst of all, Tyson indicated that all the awful stories about Tesla in a recent CNBC story , also covered here at CCN.com, are true.

Tesla Ex-Employee: Everything You’ve Heard is True

One of the most bizarre stories to come out of Tesla, in its rush to meet second-quarter delivery quotas, was that Tesla Model 3s were literally being held together by electrical tape.

Tyson said in the interview that he knows it’s true because he was the guy who had to remove the tape. Following the delivery of the vehicle, he would prepare them for the owner, and he said that things like interior door panels were being held on with electrical tape.

No other legitimate car manufacturer suffers the kinds of stories that are coming out of Tesla.

Yet we have never heard anything like we hear out of Tesla. Cars held together with electrical tape? Workers in sweatshop conditions? Legitimate car manufacturing unions would never permit the stuff that goes on at Tesla.

Elon Musk must go, and Tesla investors should be very cautious.


Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.com.