6 ms·

TFA is kind of a strange re-telling of an interesting story. It came into the public view after an article from Inc. about Musk's famous email telling people t

by zaroth 6y ago

TFA is kind of a strange re-telling of an interesting story. It came into the public view after an article from Inc. about Musk's famous email telling people to break with the chain of command. [1] The HuffPo posted an article responding to Inc raising Balan's concerns [2]; > At the time Balan was working on the interiors design team at Tesla, where she identified and “tried … to solve two engineering issues,” she wrote recently on her blog — design flaws that needed to be addressed by the company. But when she tried to force management to fix the problems she was “bullied, humiliated, demoted and retaliated against in the most horrible way possible.” She considered leaving Tesla, but fellow engineers convinced her to stay. “I promised them I [would] get to Elon one way or the other,” she wrote, “even if I [had to go] to the Supreme Court.” > Balan attempted to go through proper channels but soon found herself “in an even more threatening situation.” She began recording her meetings with fellow engineers when they discussed problems within the company. One recorded meeting lasted more than two hours. The recordings were “for Elon’s ears only,” she wrote in her blog. >> Then I made my mistake: I wrote an email to Elon Musk, in reference to the infamous ‘Communication within Tesla’ email, to let him know I must meet with him in order to show him evidence of … things going on inside the company that he needed to be aware of. The original blog post that HuffPo references is gone, but Balan has since posted a long blog article to try to tell her side of the story, which is certainly an interesting read of it's own right. [3] [1] - https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-email-from-elon-musk-to-tesla-employees-descr.html https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-email-from-elon-musk-... [2] - http://deleter.net/index.php/news/5541/Business/September-11-2017/Reporter-Writes-Glowing-Article-About-Elon-Musk-But-Leaves-Out-Key-Details http://deleter.net/index.php/news/5541/Business/September-11... [3] - http://cristinaibalanstory.com/teslas-longest-comment-on-an-article-ever/ http://cristinaibalanstory.com/teslas-longest-comment-on-an-...

cinbun8 6y ago
Recording internal meetings to raise an issue isn't the best way to deal with the situation. I'm not surprised she was let go. The company probably saw this as dangerous behavior.
- vkou 6y ago
  Companies record their employees all the time, in order to have evidence for when they raise an issue with them. I understand why they feel threatened when this sort of thing is turned around on them, though.
- buran77 6y ago
  > she was let go That's a very "euphemistic" way of putting it. Kind of like putting someone in a wheel chair could be described as "allowing them to tackle different challenges". She was more than just let go, she was bullied, humiliated, demoted, threatened, retaliated against, and blackmailed among others. Evidence was tampered with, destroyed, or manufactured, along with quite the list of irregularities even judges observed. There's nothing to justify that except an incredibly toxic company culture coming straight from a brilliant but extremely toxic leader. But people like him don't have to worry about any court. They can always buy their escape from a court of law with money, and buy their escape from the court of public opinion with charisma, PR, and their loyal following.
  - ActorNightly 6y ago
    >She was more than just let go, she was bullied, humiliated, demoted, threatened, retaliated against, and blackmailed among others. Evidence was tampered with, destroyed, or manufactured, along with quite the list of irregularities even judges observed. Real quick: all of this information exists in your head because of online articles. You haven't seen the full proof of this happening. Be careful of making conclusions based on stories rather than evidence.
    - mixmastamyk 6y ago
      A happy and competent friend of mine went to work for them in the HR department at SpaceX, and left a month later, things were that brutal. Later I took a short contact at TBM in curiosity, it was rather hardcore as well. Long story short, I tend to believe it.
      - 6y ago

by zaroth 6y ago

cinbun8 6y ago

Recording internal meetings to raise an issue isn't the best way to deal with the situation. I'm not surprised she was let go. The company probably saw this as dangerous behavior.

vkou 6y ago
Companies record their employees all the time, in order to have evidence for when they raise an issue with them. I understand why they feel threatened when this sort of thing is turned around on them, though.
buran77 6y ago
> she was let go That's a very "euphemistic" way of putting it. Kind of like putting someone in a wheel chair could be described as "allowing them to tackle different challenges". She was more than just let go, she was bullied, humiliated, demoted, threatened, retaliated against, and blackmailed among others. Evidence was tampered with, destroyed, or manufactured, along with quite the list of irregularities even judges observed. There's nothing to justify that except an incredibly toxic company culture coming straight from a brilliant but extremely toxic leader. But people like him don't have to worry about any court. They can always buy their escape from a court of law with money, and buy their escape from the court of public opinion with charisma, PR, and their loyal following.
- ActorNightly 6y ago
  >She was more than just let go, she was bullied, humiliated, demoted, threatened, retaliated against, and blackmailed among others. Evidence was tampered with, destroyed, or manufactured, along with quite the list of irregularities even judges observed. Real quick: all of this information exists in your head because of online articles. You haven't seen the full proof of this happening. Be careful of making conclusions based on stories rather than evidence.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    A happy and competent friend of mine went to work for them in the HR department at SpaceX, and left a month later, things were that brutal. Later I took a short contact at TBM in curiosity, it was rather hardcore as well. Long story short, I tend to believe it.
    - 6y ago