--- title: "Elon Musk Wanders Tesla Factory, Firing Workers in Wild Mood Swings" description: "A Wired story says Elon Musk wanders the Tesla factory, interrogating workers and sometimes firing them on the spot for what sound like dubious reasons." date: "2018-12-13" modified: "2018-12-13" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-wanders-tesla-factory-firing-workers" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "gigafactory" - "SpaceX" - "tesla" --- # Elon Musk Wanders Tesla Factory, Firing Workers in Wild Mood Swings ![Elon Musk]() *\Image: Getty Images/Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## Hair Trigger Everybody knows that Elon Musk is an extraordinary force in our historical moment: an eccentric billionaire who's almost singlehandedly resurrected the futuristic visions of the electric car and commercial space travel. But working for Musk sounds terrible, if a [deeply reported new *Wired* feature]() is to be believed. ## "Rage Firings" The story, evocatively titled "Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk," describes an unpredictable leader who prowls the floor of Tesla's Gigafactory "red-faced and urgent, interrogating workers" — and sometimes firing them on the spot for what sound like dubious reasons. These sudden terminations grew so common as Tesla worked to meet [manufacturing goals on the Model 3](), according to *Wired*, that one manager coined a term for them: "Elon’s rage firings." Dozens of current and former Tesla employees corroborated that Tesla has been at times a hellish place to work, often due to its CEO's erratic behavior. One told journalist Charles Duhigg that "everyone in Tesla is in an abusive relationship with Elon." ## Your Best You Like it or not, though, Musk's strategy [gets results](). "He’s someone who empowers you to be better than you think you can be," Tesla's longtime attorney Todd Maron, who's leaving the company, told *Wired*. "He has extraordinarily high standards, and so he pushes you to be your absolute best." Additionally, a Tesla spokesperson told *Wired* that some aspects of its story were "overly dramatized," "abbreviated," and "ultimately misleading anecdotes that completely lack essential context." They also said that "Elon cares very deeply about the people who work at his companies. That is why, although it is painful, he sometimes takes the difficult step of firing people who are underperforming and putting the success of the entire company \[at risk\]." ## Smells Fishy Taken together, though, the stories about Musk's unstable behavior paint a picture of a company that, though it may eventually accomplish extraordinary things, [isn't treating its workers well](). And sometimes, Musk just sounds childish. After a particularly rough tour of the Gigafactory floor, *Wired* reported, executives pulled Musk into a conference room to try to calm him down. But Musk couldn't concentrate because he insisted something smelled bad. Then he delivered a veering speed that "deflated some and inspired others," according to Duhigg's account. "That was a pretty typical Wednesday, actually," a senior executive told *Wired*. "That's what it was like until I quit." **READ MORE:** [Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell]() \[*Wired*\] ***More on Elon Musk:** [Tesla Is Suing Alleged Saboteur for $167 Million]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()