by Rob Beschizza
Tesla’s layoffs expanded over the weekend with staff involved in software, service and engineering all reporting that they’d gotten their pink slips. The 10 percent workforce reduction announced earlier by CEO Elon Musk is, Electrek’s Fred Lambert writes, closing in on 20 percent.
The layoffs were expected after CEO Elon Musk made an example of Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s former head of charging, and her entire team by firing everyone last week. After the move, he emailed other executives and told them that they would also be let go if they don’t let go higher percentages of their teams.
Musk and Tesla have given several reasons for the layoffs. Musk first told employees that it was due to Tesla’s fast headcount growth over the last few years, resulting in hiring inefficiencies and role duplication.
However, he also told investors and employees more recently that it was about “restructuring for the next phase of growth”.
It’s not a car company, Musk said after it posted poor sales results, but it’s also clearly not an energy infrastructure company either. So what is it? The layoffs don’t seem well-planned. If anything, it looks a lot like Twitter in the weeks after Musk bought it: a combination of reckless downsizing and recreational slaughter.
