Elon Musk’s Tesla factory in Grünheide only opened in March. But the employees are already running away from the tech billionaire. It’s chaos.
Berlin – Only in The new Gigafactory of the electric car manufacturer Tesla opened near Berlin on March 1st of this year. While CEO Elon Musk announced ambitious production targets before the opening, the employees there are apparently already running away from him.
Tesla Grünheide: Employees are leaving the Gigafactory en masse
Like employees of the electric car manufacturer, the British online portal Wired report, the only German Tesla factory is constantly losing workers. The reasons for this are the low wages, unequal pay and inexperienced managers. Tesla actually wanted to hire 12,000 people for the Gigafactory. So far, however, there are only 7000 employees.
A current employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes the situation Wired opposite as “total chaos”. “Some people are sick longer than they have actually worked. There are people I haven’t seen work for three weeks in six months,” he says. Some would simply take sick leave because they lack motivation.
In November, 386 jobs were advertised for the Tesla plant in Berlin. But filling these positions will be quite difficult. IG Metall said opposite Wiredthat Tesla pays around 20 percent less than is usual in the industry. With the major competitors nearbylike for example VWit is even more difficult to get qualified workers.
“Lack of empathy”: Tesla employees are disappointed
Another ex-employee who also wishes to remain anonymous reports Wired Which tricks Tesla uses when recruiting. He was recruited for a job at the Gigafactory on the job portal LinkedIn. He even moved hundreds of kilometers with his family to Berlin for his new job.
However, an updated contract was sent to him shortly before he started. The new job description then included morning, night and weekend shifts, which was not the case in the old contract. “I have a young son and it was difficult for us to cope,” he tells the online portal. However, Tesla did not accommodate the family, there was “a lack of empathy”. That’s why he left the company again in September. (ph)