Tesla workers pay the price for Musk’s big promises

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been known worldwide for his ambitious claims and promises which is then difficult for Tesla to fulfill. As a result, his leadership of Tesla sets a troubling tone for everyone at company.

After several investigation reports into high injury rates at the company’s California electric car factory, Musk sent an email to his workers at the factory stating that he cares about their safety and wellbeing and that every injury should be reported directly to him. He further asserted that he is meeting with the safety team every week to meet with every injured worker as soon as possible.

A former factory worker who got injured during July 2017, Richard Ortiz, stated that Musk never met with him and his safety claims are merely for PR and it is utter “bologna”. He went on and said that workers on the production line has to work for 12 hours a day and six days a week. This is when the wear and tear starts. More than 10 employees at Tesla asserted that Musk’s bombastic promises to customers, to shareholders and to them largely go unfulfilled.

In order to fulfill these promises especially to customers like timely delivery of vehicles like the recent Model 3, workers have to work tirelessly and in the interim injuries occur. Many employees believe that Musk has a loose tongue and he is overly optimistic which might be endearing to his legion of fans but these employees feel that they have merely become collateral damage. However, a spokesperson of Musk said that he has been in the factory many times and has visited the production nearly every day.

Center for Investigative Reporting Reveal found that Tesla has been keeping injuries off its books, making the safety record look better. “As a Tesla employee, I am really ashamed when my CEO is lying to the public” said a worker on the production line at the factory.