Tesla sends out the most insensitive layoff memo to its employees, sparking online outrage

When prosperous companies implement massive layoffs, it can ignite significant backlash. Despite immense financial success, such actions can severely affect employee trust and tarnish the company's reputation. Recently, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, received harsh criticism from people on the internet after he sent out an internal memo detailing how the company would lay people off in the most insensitive manner. A now-deleted post on Reddit contained a picture of the memo, which got 16K upvotes and 956 comments before being taken down.

The memo starts with "Dear Employee," which was a completely inappropriate way to address an employee who is about to be fired. It read, "Today, we're sharing a significant decision that impacts the entire organization and you directly." The short letter went on to state how Tesla had grown rapidly in recent years with more factories around the world. It apparently caused "duplication of job roles and job functions in certain areas." After this, it stated that the company needed to examine carefully every way to reduce costs and increase productivity.

The memo then bluntly stated, "As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount globally. Unfortunately, as a result, your position has been eliminated by this restructuring." Individuals who saw the post on Reddit were infuriated at how they were executing layoffs and shared their thoughts about it in the comment section. u/Inevitable_Truth_847 commented, "Can't even be bothered to address you by name. 'Dear Employee,' might as well say, 'Dear Peasant.'" u/DoubtDizzy1309 expressed, "They could've at least popped in a name at the beginning of the template."

u/ItsMePeyt0n highlighted, "I knew from reading the first sentence that I could skip the entire second paragraph. Just a bunch of useless filler that the boots-on-the-ground people don't care about." u/CptSparklFingrs shared, "One of the Tesla tire techs I work closer with made the mistake of putting in his two weeks a few days ago. If he had waited a bit, he might have been able to get that severance." u/ChanglingBlake said, "So, to prepare for expanding, and creating new roles, we are firing you instead of shifting those who best fit those new roles into those positions. Sincerely, the boss, stealing your paycheck."

According to Business Insider, Tesla had begun asking managers to identify which roles were crucial to the functioning of the company even going to the extent of temporarily delaying performance reviews. The tech corporation had laid off many of its plant workers in Buffalo, New York, in February of 2023. This layoff was also met with a lot of controversies because the Workers United union stated in a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board that Telsa had unlawfully laid them off. The company wanted to retaliate against union activities and dampen the possibility of union activities shortly. Tesla denied any such claims and said the employees were fired because of their poor performance.