A wave of senior officers have departed across five companies headed by Elon Musk, the common reason cited by those who have left has been psychological burnout, strategic disagreements, and concerns about the billionaire’s political activism, as per reports by Financial Times.
Executives who held key roles recently left Tesla and X.ai, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup. Beyond these, Tesla has also witnessed departures from its US sales team, battery operations, public affairs divisions, and critical Optimus robot and AI teams. In the recent past company’s chief information officer also stepped down.
The new turnover affects Musk’s conglomerate of more than 140,000 employees spanning across from SpaceX to Tesla. Over a dozen current and former employees to understand spoke to the Financial Times and detailed the issues that have led them to leave the company.
Work Culture Issues and Turnover at X ai
The Exodus has been particularly active at xAI, and Musk has emerged with his social network x in March. The startup‘s chief financial officer lasted only three months before moving to rival OpenAI, while the general counsel departed after 16 months. Miel Liberatore, the former CFO, noted on LinkedIn that he had worked close to 1.2 days – 7 days per week in the Office; 120 hours per week.
Messages from those who have left
Robert Keele, x AI‘s general counsel, ended his tenure by posting an AI-generated video of a lawyer screaming while shoveling molten coal, commenting: “I love my two toddlers, and I do not get to see them enough?
As per a new FT update, while some have departed happily after long service askew of other employees state that they have left due to exhaustion or disillusionment with Musk’s decision-making.
Mass firings as Elon Turns Focus to Ai
Tesla has eliminated 14,000 positions in April 2024, Elon Musk’s move to invest in AI initiatives instead if electric vehicle projects led to Tesla eliminating close to 14,000 positions. And beyond that, Elon Musk’s Political activism and strategic pivots have led to further concerns for the employees.
Employees further told FT that they employees expressed unease about Musk’s support for Donald Trump and far-right provocateurs. At X, staff raised concerns about Musk’s approach to user safety as the company rushed to compete with OpenAI and Google. Beyond that, other notable departures included Daniel Ho, who was the head of Tesla’s cancelled $25,000 EV project before joining Google’s Waymo, and Omead Ashfar, Musk’s close confidant, was dismissed as head of North American sales amid falling sales blamed on alienating liberal customers.
Tesla’s chair, Robyn Denhol, defended the company’s position. He further stated that our beach strength is outstanding, and he also stated that Tesla is still the magnet for talent.
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