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Let me get this straight: "Work 80 hr weeks! Be just like me!" Musk: becomes worlds richest person Employees: laid off What planet do you live on where you

Let me get this straight: "Work 80 hr weeks! Be just like me!" Musk: becomes worlds richest person Employees: laid off What planet do you live on where you see this as a sustainable, world-improving system for the world and for compensation? Anyone that works 50 hr weeks for this dude is out of their mind.

dionidium 4y ago
People should be free to make that decision for themselves. At a low enough resolution basically nobody works at Tesla. It's a big world and there are lots of options.
sillysaurusx 4y ago
There’s a more general idea here: don’t work more than you want to, after the amount you’re required to.
0daystock 4y ago
You act like exploitation of employees is exclusive to Tesla, or even the tech industry. The reality is far worse than you can even imagine.
- lapcat 4y ago
  > You act like exploitation of employees is exclusive to Tesla, or even the tech industry. Where did the OP say or imply that?
  - 0daystock 4y ago
    The part where he complains that an exchange of 50 hours of labor for compensation at the top 5% of the world is somehow unfair or abusive, and is otherwise surprised by the concept of at-will employment.
    - lapcat 4y ago
      > surprised by the concept of at-will employment I seriously doubt the OP was surprised by the concept of at-will employment. What the OP said was "Anyone that works 50 hr weeks for this dude is out of their mind." In other words, they are doing it voluntarily, but it's still a bad idea for them, maybe even delusional. If you've ever had a bad exit from an employer, you start to rethink the sacrifices you made for the employer while you were there.
cptaj 4y ago
The thing is, all other systems have been VIOLENTLY worse
- lapcat 4y ago
  The OP seems to be referring to "working tons of overtime to get ahead" and not "capitalism in general". Nonetheless, both China and Russia have switched from communism to capitalism while remaining violently bad, so it seems dubious that this is determined by the economic system rather than the political system.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
throwaway4aday 4y ago
How about reading the article instead of the headline. "Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a “super bad feeling” about the economy and needs to cut about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker" "Musk has warned in recent weeks about the risk of a recession, but his email ordering a hiring freeze and staff cuts was the most direct and high-profile message of its kind from the head of an automaker." "Musk’s gloomy outlook echoes recent comments from executives including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs President John Waldron. A “hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way,” Dimon said this week." In other words, he's doing his job and preparing the company to weather a very likely recession. Judging from the tone of your comment though, I imagine you would prefer if he neglected his responsibility to the company and its shareholders in order to spare some of his workers the inconvenience of looking for another job. That way the entire company can suffer together and lose even more positions.
- lapcat 4y ago
  > How about reading the article instead of the headline. "Please don't comment on whether someone read an article." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- photochemsyn 4y ago
  This is a fundamental problem with the US corporate model: responsibility to shareholders should carry no more weight than responsibility to employees. This is more the German model (see VW) where a company's workers and a company's shareholders have similar representation on the corporate board and both share in the decision-making process. It's also no surprise that the main pushback against the 'back to the office' move is coming from workers in Germany. Probably in this case the shareholder representatives on the board are privately pressuring Musk to do layoffs. People seem either ignorant of this fact or unwilling to comment on this fact, but the major shareholders (mutual and institutional funds) can be seen here: https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=TSLA&subView=institutional https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?s... Maybe the bigger point is that while blue-collar workers in the USA have been treated like disposable units for years under the neoliberal program, now the white-collar workers who thought they were above all that are going to get the same treatment, much to their shock and dismay. Should have seen it coming.
alfor 4y ago
Depend on your values. Most job are bullshit job these day. A lot of companies are actively making society worse for their profits. Almost all product fabrication have left the US for China.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
manuelabeledo 4y ago
I yet have to see a wealthy individual working 80h/week, in an environment as physically and mentally demanding as their employees. Musk is not exception.
- Saint_Genet 4y ago
  Given how terminally online and meme-aware he is, there is no way he doesn't spend a significant part of his waking day just browsing shitposts.
  - smaryjerry 4y ago
    I understand the desire of people to hate others just because others a richer but I’ve seen a bit too much assumption about how he runs his company from people and how he should be spending his time in their opinion, and it’s not just Elon Musk that gets this. Which CEO would be better, one that gets on the assembly line of the product and spends 80 hours a week helping employees put together the product, or a CEO that in two hours a week thinks of improvements that cut employees time needed to spend on assembly by 50% and increase quality of the product so that sales go up by 10 fold? Obviously productivity measures made in hours spent are ridiculous for both you, me, and CEOs.
    - manuelabeledo 4y ago
      > I understand the desire of people to hate others just because others a richer... Is that the case, though. I for one don't care if Musk is the wealthiest person on Earth, or just some random middle class Joe. Fact is, he absolutely _loves_ to tout how much harder and longer he works than anyone else. That alone screams "bad leader" all around, and in my experience, anyone going public on matters like this, is overcompensating. > ... it’s not just Elon Musk that gets this. This is a very specific issue we are talking about. I cannot recall Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page... making public statements about how much more they work than their employees, or how lazy and entitled their employees are. So while other wealthy individuals may get some hate, it's certainly not because they very publicly insult their workers.

dionidium 4y ago

People should be free to make that decision for themselves. At a low enough resolution basically nobody works at Tesla. It's a big world and there are lots of options.

sillysaurusx 4y ago

There’s a more general idea here: don’t work more than you want to, after the amount you’re required to.

0daystock 4y ago

You act like exploitation of employees is exclusive to Tesla, or even the tech industry. The reality is far worse than you can even imagine.

lapcat 4y ago
> You act like exploitation of employees is exclusive to Tesla, or even the tech industry. Where did the OP say or imply that?
- 0daystock 4y ago
  The part where he complains that an exchange of 50 hours of labor for compensation at the top 5% of the world is somehow unfair or abusive, and is otherwise surprised by the concept of at-will employment.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    > surprised by the concept of at-will employment I seriously doubt the OP was surprised by the concept of at-will employment. What the OP said was "Anyone that works 50 hr weeks for this dude is out of their mind." In other words, they are doing it voluntarily, but it's still a bad idea for them, maybe even delusional. If you've ever had a bad exit from an employer, you start to rethink the sacrifices you made for the employer while you were there.

cptaj 4y ago

The thing is, all other systems have been VIOLENTLY worse

lapcat 4y ago
The OP seems to be referring to "working tons of overtime to get ahead" and not "capitalism in general". Nonetheless, both China and Russia have switched from communism to capitalism while remaining violently bad, so it seems dubious that this is determined by the economic system rather than the political system.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

throwaway4aday 4y ago

How about reading the article instead of the headline. "Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a “super bad feeling” about the economy and needs to cut about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker" "Musk has warned in recent weeks about the risk of a recession, but his email ordering a hiring freeze and staff cuts was the most direct and high-profile message of its kind from the head of an automaker." "Musk’s gloomy outlook echoes recent comments from executives including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs President John Waldron. A “hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way,” Dimon said this week." In other words, he's doing his job and preparing the company to weather a very likely recession. Judging from the tone of your comment though, I imagine you would prefer if he neglected his responsibility to the company and its shareholders in order to spare some of his workers the inconvenience of looking for another job. That way the entire company can suffer together and lose even more positions.

lapcat 4y ago
> How about reading the article instead of the headline. "Please don't comment on whether someone read an article." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
photochemsyn 4y ago
This is a fundamental problem with the US corporate model: responsibility to shareholders should carry no more weight than responsibility to employees. This is more the German model (see VW) where a company's workers and a company's shareholders have similar representation on the corporate board and both share in the decision-making process. It's also no surprise that the main pushback against the 'back to the office' move is coming from workers in Germany. Probably in this case the shareholder representatives on the board are privately pressuring Musk to do layoffs. People seem either ignorant of this fact or unwilling to comment on this fact, but the major shareholders (mutual and institutional funds) can be seen here: https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=TSLA&subView=institutional https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?s... Maybe the bigger point is that while blue-collar workers in the USA have been treated like disposable units for years under the neoliberal program, now the white-collar workers who thought they were above all that are going to get the same treatment, much to their shock and dismay. Should have seen it coming.

alfor 4y ago

Depend on your values. Most job are bullshit job these day. A lot of companies are actively making society worse for their profits. Almost all product fabrication have left the US for China.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

manuelabeledo 4y ago

I yet have to see a wealthy individual working 80h/week, in an environment as physically and mentally demanding as their employees. Musk is not exception.

Saint_Genet 4y ago
Given how terminally online and meme-aware he is, there is no way he doesn't spend a significant part of his waking day just browsing shitposts.
- smaryjerry 4y ago
  I understand the desire of people to hate others just because others a richer but I’ve seen a bit too much assumption about how he runs his company from people and how he should be spending his time in their opinion, and it’s not just Elon Musk that gets this. Which CEO would be better, one that gets on the assembly line of the product and spends 80 hours a week helping employees put together the product, or a CEO that in two hours a week thinks of improvements that cut employees time needed to spend on assembly by 50% and increase quality of the product so that sales go up by 10 fold? Obviously productivity measures made in hours spent are ridiculous for both you, me, and CEOs.
  - manuelabeledo 4y ago
    > I understand the desire of people to hate others just because others a richer... Is that the case, though. I for one don't care if Musk is the wealthiest person on Earth, or just some random middle class Joe. Fact is, he absolutely _loves_ to tout how much harder and longer he works than anyone else. That alone screams "bad leader" all around, and in my experience, anyone going public on matters like this, is overcompensating. > ... it’s not just Elon Musk that gets this. This is a very specific issue we are talking about. I cannot recall Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page... making public statements about how much more they work than their employees, or how lazy and entitled their employees are. So while other wealthy individuals may get some hate, it's certainly not because they very publicly insult their workers.