'Think Carefully': Musk Issues Stark Warning About New Hires to Tesla Employees The Tesla CEO sent out an email to all employees on Monday asking for more transparency in the company's hiring process.
By Emily Rella Edited by Jessica Thomas
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Elon Musk has been known to lay down the hammer when it comes to his Tesla employees, whether it's requiring them to come into the office and encouraging them to leave if they do not comply or sending mass emails about productivity.
Now, another leaked memo shows that Musk, who is CEO of Tesla, must directly approve of all potential employees before they can be formally offered a job at the electric car company.
"Think carefully before sending me a request," Musk penned to employees in an email viewed by Electrek. "No one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, until you receive my email approval."
Musk also requested that the VPs of each department send him their requests for hiring weekly so that he can "gain a better understanding" of the hiring process at the company.
The new process will of course make the hiring process slower and more deliberate, with one anonymous employee telling CNBC that many Tesla workers inferred that the email meant a "soft" hiring freeze was imminent.
Tesla saw several rounds of layoffs in 2022, which was a rough year for the electric car company as it saw its stock value plummet when Musk sold off large portions of his own shares to fund his acquisition of Twitter.
Related: Elon Musk Brutally Tells Tesla Executives They Must Return to Offices 'Or Depart Tesla'
However, after opening new gigafactories in Austin, Texas and Berlin, the company hired an estimated 28,565 new employees between 2021 and 2022.
Musk will now have plenty of time to dedicate to Tesla as he relieves himself of CEO duties at Twitter, announcing last week that former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino will be taking on the role.
Tesla reported a year-over-year net income loss of 24% in Q1 2023, which the company attributed to an "underutilization of new factories" and higher costs for raw materials, among other things.
Tesla's annual shareholder meeting is expected to begin at 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday at Tesla's gigafactory in Austin.
The company was down over 31.6% year over year as of Tuesday morning.
