On June 4, elonmusk, CEO of Tesla, claimed in an internal email that Tesla would cut 10% of its staff in view of his "super bad" feeling about the U.S. economy. However, before that, many employees may have planned to leave, which may accelerate the brain drain.
Musk has issued an ultimatum to Tesla employees to return to their posts and threatened to dismiss those who work in the office less than 40 hours a week, which is in sharp contrast to the flexible office conditions provided by other large technology companies that are aggressively recruiting talents. This job return measure, together with the sharp decline in Tesla's share price this year (partly because musk bought twitter at a high price) and his open alliance with the Republican Party, has become a catalyst for some employees to leave.
Nicholasbloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, said: "Tesla is launching its great resignation program." He predicted that 60% of employees would return to the company to take part in full-time work, about 10% of employees would resign, and about 30% of employees would change their positions. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Many technology companies feel the opportunity and are moving quickly. Scott Farquhar, Australia's third richest man, talked on twitter about plans to expand and provide flexible jobs. He added: "are there any Tesla employees interested?"
After the COVID-19, more and more employees in the technology industry who are used to working from home or mixed office mode refuse to return to the office full-time. A former Tesla engineer said that he recently accepted the job offer of Google parent company alphabet because he could not achieve work life balance in Tesla, including too much pressure to return to the office during the epidemic. At Google, he only needs to go to the office three times a week, and some team members can work remotely. He said that many friends who work from home "have not reduced their work efficiency, but their happiness index seems to be higher".
Another former Tesla engineer said that he had been under pressure to work in the office during the outbreak in 2020. Go to [Apple] at( https://apple.pvxt.net/c/1251234/435400/7639?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fcn%2Fmusic%2F ) Before the company, he was infected with novel coronavirus twice.
Higher stock compensation
The threat of layoffs and job returns comes as Tesla engineers are watching their stock compensation fall. Tesla also faces many problems that plague other companies, such as epidemic restrictions.
In addition, investors also worry that Musk's $44billion acquisition of twitter will distract him, although musk himself argues that he spends relatively little time on twitter.
Tesla shares fell 9% on Friday after musk announced his layoff plan. Twitter also said that Musk's acquisition has passed the US antitrust review. Since musk announced its purchase of twitter shares in early April, Tesla's shares have fallen by about 30%, about twice the decline of the NASDAQ index.
Tesla vs NASDAQ and Fang
Michael Solomon, the founder of 10x ascend, a compensation negotiation consulting service, said: "if this situation continues, Tesla will certainly fall into the dilemma of retaining talents. There are two possibilities: one is that musk has made controversial comments, which not everyone likes; the other is that the share price has been hit hard."
Tesla said in this year's securities filing that the proportion of stock options in the company's executive compensation is higher than that of its peers. When the stock price does not rise, the value of this part of compensation may depreciate.
According to the data provided by the recruitment websites blind and Glassdoor, Tesla employees' annual bonus in the form of shares is usually lower than the cash salary received by other large technology companies.
Tatiana Becker runs Niah recruiting, a recruitment company for start-ups. She recently conducted an e-mail marketing campaign for Tesla employees and received 14% of the responses, while the highest response rate under normal circumstances is only 10%.
Musk brand effect
To be sure, Musk's arrogant personality helped build the Tesla brand, allowed the company to expand without marketing, and gave many employees a sense of mission tied to him and his climate goals.
For some people, long working hours and unreasonable working conditions have become the norm of Tesla. "This is how we work," said a former Tesla engineer In the case of weak demand, other technology companies are laying off staff or slowing down or even suspending recruitment, which may inhibit the willingness of some Tesla employees to change jobs.
However, musk recently accepted a new party political identity, which made many employees unhappy, especially the liberal technology workers in Silicon Valley.
"Musk is a very polarized person. You either love him very much or hate him very much. Some people are hard core fans of him. They are willing to do anything for him in order to work for his company. Others are firmly opposed to the way he runs the company," said will hunsinger, CEO of headhunter Riviera partners
Musk used a large number of his twitter fans to attack Democratic lawmakers, and used his acquisition to support the so-called freedom of speech, including a promise to restore the accounts of former president donaldtrump. He also said he would vote for Republicans. "Some people are very disgusted with this," Solomon said. "These people have many choices in their employment choices."
A former Tesla manager said that many employees would wait for the stock to rebound. He described stock awards as "golden handcuffs" to prevent employees from leaving the company. "If they think Tesla's share price will remain low, they are more likely to leave because the huge bonuses are no longer so attractive," he said (small)