Tesla sellers say that morale has drastically changed as stores are closed
Tesla shocked employees last week when it was announced that it would switch to an online sales model and close "many" of their stores.
A salesman, away from the assigned store in California at that time, found out later that night just after reading the news reports about the plan.
"Whenever there are layoffs, we are alerted to that fact," told the staff, assuming anonymity, Business Insider. "It's a blow to the face. We should have been told first, we are the ones who build the empire of 19459012."
It is just one example of an extinction of expansion by Tesla employees, many of whom say that they have remained in the dark about major business decisions that affect their ability to sell cars and energy systems.
Read more: Tesla urged its employees to buy cars that used their paid holiday days
Tesla advisors, whom the company calls its sellers, were taken off separate energy and car focus last year in the midst of the company's press to enter profits in the third and fourth quarter. Former energy buyers told Business Insider that the bonuses were drastically changed last year, so individual bonuses were linked to the team's performance in the stores.
"It is empty here right now," said another employee, assuming anonymity, about his assigned store. "This is usually a positive place to work, but now it feels like a happiness home."
The decision to close stores ̵[ads1]1; many of which in California, New York, Washington, DC – have already closed – perhaps working for cars, workers said, but energy systems need a more practical approach. Home energy systems can take 90 days to install.
"You can test the car with seven days, but solar energy is a full blown construction project," the workers said.
But even car dealers say they are still needed for Tesla to continue to grow.
"Electric cars are too new for a concept not to have a sales force," said a former customer service specialist, who left this week. "The worst feeling was opening a store and three months later closing their doors. I've never been divorced, but it's probably the best way I could describe what I was feeling going on."
In general, employees love to work for Tesla, even frustrated workers are quick to say.
"We worked really, very hard because we did it for ourselves," said a current salesman. "We did it for Tesla and for the mission."
Workers are not only invested morally in Tesla's mission – some have moved thousands of miles to work for Tesla – but also financially. Large fractions of many employees' salaries are in the form of limited stock units, which are shares given to employees on a predetermined vesting schedule. The final value of the shares depends on the price the company's share is trading on the date of maturity.
"You have people who work with them a —- off in jobs they weren't even employed to do," the sales staff said, who went in to deliver cars to customers last year. "And Tesla doesn't give one s —."
Tesla refused to comment.
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