Tesla Is Taking a Break From Hiring—Elon Musk Might Cut Off 10% of Jobs

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is bracing for the approaching recession. Musk asked employees to pause the hiring of talent globally, and stated the possibility of cutting off 10% of jobs in his company.

This recent news briefly comes right after the CEO himself mandated Tesla workers go back to office and halted the acceptance of remote working.

Tesla Layoff

Elon Musk told Tesla executives to hold the hiring globally expressing that he has a bad feeling with the current economic state. Aside from pausing the massive break in hiring, the electric vehicle company may cut off 10% of its job offers.

It has been reported by Business Insider that Tesla collectively hired an enormous number of employees last year, at around 100,000 people, as seen in its annual Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

If this cut off gets implemented, this would mean thousands of people losing their jobs.

Yesterday, in reaction to the series of tweets made by Australian tech millionaire Scott Farquhar, who encouraged Tesla employees to check into its remote work possibilities, Elon Musk replied, stating, "recessions serve a critical economic cleansing role."

In addition, a fan on Twitter asked Musk about his opinion on whether or not a recession is coming, and he responded by saying yes, and he believes it is a good thing. He also stated that money has been abundant for quite some time now and some bankruptcies need to happen.

Musk added, "Also, all the Covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don't actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!"

Tesla Employees Back To Work

Tesla's hiring break comes just after their CEO, Elon Musk emailed executives of the company stating that remote work is no longer acceptable.

The company's CEO blasted out a series of emails that essentially demanded employees return to the office immediately or face termination. As previously reported here in iTechPost, in the first email, Musk stated that employees who would opt to work remotely would need to be in the company's offices for at least a minimum of 40 hours.

If there are particular exceptions, he would personally review them directly. He also emphasized that the Tesla main office is the only office of the company, not some remote branch office.

In the second email, the CEO added, "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned." Musk also mandated that the more senior your role is in the company, the more your presence in the office will be valued.

Musk is, of course, aware of other companies implementing options such as working remotely full-time or a hybrid working set up. However, for his company, Musk reasoned by stating, "There are of course companies that don't require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It's been a while."

Tesla EV Production

Despite a global chip shortage that has been going on for quite some time now and production problems due to the COVID-19, Tesla was able to manufacture 930,422 cars last year and deliver 936,222 of them.

Fortune reported that the Tesla factory in Shanghai was closed for three weeks throughout the month of April. This is also one of the reasons why a few analysts have lowered their predictions for the company since there have been delayed deliveries as a result of rigid COVID measures, lockdowns, and lost productivity at its Shanghai facility, which serves as a hub providing electric vehicles to China as well as for export.

China is the company's second most significant market after the United States. On a typical day, it can produce approximately 2,100 automobiles.

However, Musk did not elaborate further on the reasons behind his statement about the bad feelings he has for the economy. This comes as no surprise, as numerous analysts have echoed the same concern about the gloomy days ahead.