Tesla Furloughs Half Of Its Entire US Sales And Delivery Staff

The impacts of Tesla’s previously announced furloughs are finally starting rear their heads – in a big way. The company announced on Friday that about half of the company’s entire U.S. sales and delivery staff would be affected, according to CNBC. 

Workers in sales and deliveries were furloughed by their rank and their tenure, not on the basis of their performance. Anyone with entry-level roles or lower sales quotas each quarter have all been furloughed, according to sources at Tesla. Employees in senior sales and delivery roles who have been with the company for less than two years have also been furloughed.

One furloughed employee worried that permanent layoffs could be next as a way for Tesla to continue cost cutting that began in 2019. As a reminder, Tesla said in early 2019 it was going to shift to “online only sales” before walking back those comments just weeks later. 

Recall, we first reported about 3 days ago that Tesla announced it was going to be furloughing all non-essential workers and implementing salary cuts due to the very same coronavirus outbreak that CEO Elon Musk once publicly labeled as “dumb”.

In true “carrot on a string” fashion, the company also disclosed at the same time that it expected to resume normal operations on May 4, “barring any significant changes”. 

Recall, Tesla had suspended production at Fremont and in New York on March 24. The Fremont suspension came after a spat with the Alameda County Sheriff’s department about whether or not Tesla was an “essential” business. It also came 8 days after Musk told his workers they were “more likely to die in a car crash” than from coronavirus. 

Two days after Tesla’s delayed close, on March 26, it was reported that two Tesla employees had tested positive for coronavirus.

According to an email sent to U.S. employees by in-house counsel Valerie Capers Workman, workers pay is going to be cut 10%, directors will have their salaries cut by 20% and VP salaries will be cut by 30%, the company said.

Tesla said that pay for salaried employees would be reduced on April 13 and that cuts would remain in place until the end of the second quarter, despite the company’s plans to re-open in early May.