• jballs
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    8 months ago

    I hate when companies say they’re “forced” to do layoffs. Elon could easily pay six figure salaries to 14,000 people for over a decade before he noticed even the slightest change to his net worth. What they really mean is that by upending the lives of 14,000 families, they’re hoping to get a temporary bump in the stock price this quarter so they can buy another yacht.

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I really find the hatred of layoffs some of the most nonsensical criticism of capitalism.

      If you are going to pay people for doing nothing useful, because your company no longer needs their work, why make them go to work? You can save their time and your money (office costs, taxes, administration, etc.) if you just give them the money after you fire them.

      • Eximius@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I think it’s more so that the corporate culture lately is extremely short-sighted and makes lay-offs in incredibly dumb ways (i.e. you can see their future half-year problems). Which many times will need to be re-hired by paying lots of money to idiotic recruiters to hire new people (because the older folks have switched ship and are not coming back) and train them. Lots of instability caused by extremely poor management (who get payed a lot even though they make stupid decisions).

        It’s not a one-off, and it keeps happening.

        • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I mean, what you say is true although I suspect it is a lot less common than the headlines would lead you to believe. Its probably just selection bias since news don’t report on companies running well.

          Either way, that is not what the comment I was reacting to is saying.

          • Eximius@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Indeed… top comment is a bit more… emotional. I just try to perceive where the general emotion is coming from (because it is definitely shared by many)

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    Avoid Musk at all costs.

    It would be embarassing to drive a Tesla today, especially for the demographic that would buy these EVs.

    You see one driving and you know the driver is a uninformed douchebag.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        8 months ago

        15th July 2018

        That’s when Musk called a diver who’d just rescued a bunch of kids, a paedophile after he showed up his magical cave diving robot that wouldn’t fit in the cave.

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        Engineers have been calling him out for a decade, it’s just people told us “shut up, nerd! Elon is smarter than all of you! You are just jealous!”

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It was honestly hard to parse how disgruntled workers from legitimate complainants. The diver comment was his Mask Off moment.

      • capem@startrek.website
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        8 months ago

        TBF, Musk’s saneness should have no impact on your car-buying decisions.

        Get the best product for the money you spend.

          • Veraxus@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            If I had to buy a new car today, I’d get a Rivian.

            But personally, I’m holding out for Aptera. A car so exceptionally efficient that - for my needs - may never need to be plugged in? Yes, please.

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I’ve been following the Aptera since the 00’s So happy to see them actually getting to market.

              An Aptera doesn’t fit my needs if I only have one vehicle. I’m also following Edison Motors for their pickup truck conversions. As a farmer, I do have a legitimate need for a good pickup/flatbed truck and I have an old Scottsdale without an engine. Diesel/Ev hybrid fueled by biodiesel would be so cool. Modern drive train, manual windows and no spyware.

              • Veraxus@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                I hear about use-cases like yours constantly. I feel like auto-makers are really dropping the ball by not offering “low-tech” electric vehicles. Not only would that result in lower price points, but it appeals to people who don’t want or don’t trust all the high-tech bells and whistles being crammed into EVs these days.

                It’s clear that there is a huge market for people who just want an old-school car that runs on batteries, and not an overpriced luxury iPhone on wheels.

                • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Cause they don’t want to ship simple, fixable vehicles without spyware. Even the windshields are designed to pull “maximum value” from their users.

                  Edison Motors is wisely only making Semi and Pickup truck conversions with end user fixability in mind, but they have considered making Jeep kits down the road. There are also people pulling Tesla transaxles and putting them in better cars and you can buy the Ford Mustang Mach-E transaxle as a crate motor. BTW, why the fuck is something that’s called a Mustang listed as an SUV?

                  There’s a lot of really cool options for DIY EVs that are way better then the upbuilt golfcart motors people use to have to settle for.

    • loutr
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      8 months ago

      Most people (especially outside the US) don’t give a fuck about Elon and his politics, at the end of the day they’ll buy the car which fits their needs the most within the price range they can afford. And yeah Teslas have issues but my friends who own one are very happy with them.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        my friends who own one are very happy with them.

        That’s because the people who don’t like them get rid of them. Their reviews are not good when compared to other vehicles in the same category. The Cybertruck is last in class (not first, last) in all categories except acceleration.

        • loutr
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          8 months ago

          Well I don’t know/care, I’m not really interested in cars (and I for one wouldn’t buy a Tesla due to Elon Musk’s assholery alone). But my friends are, and after thoroughly evaluating the options available here in France they went with Tesla, and they don’t seem to regret it.

          • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            That’s dumb? You can get BMWs or Mercedes Benzes in Europe pretty easily if you want a luxury car. For BMW, you can get an electric i3 for pretty cheap ($15K in the US) or an i4 if you want a newer electric car.

            Tesla is firing people for a reason. They are selling fewer cars because the competition is better.

            • loutr
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              8 months ago

              i3 is too small, i4 is too expensive to get the eco bonus so it’s much more expensive than the model 3.

              But OK I get it, you hate Tesla and you’re an expert in the French car market, I’ll be sure to let them know.

              • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                But Tesla is priced like a luxury car? My point is, you can get everything you want better with other manufacturers. Unless you mainly want to suck off Elon.

                • ceiling@lemm.ee
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                  8 months ago

                  I very much dislike Elon, but I have a Model 3 and it was definitely the best option for the price. It was $25K used, much less than an i4 and I like the overall design much better, but I know a lot of people don’t like it which is fine. Have you owned an EV? The charging infrastructure in the US for Teslas is light years ahead of the competition, and you know that’s true when the other manufacturers, that you say are better, are switching charging ports and trying to get access to the supercharger network. Let’s not pretend like you can get EVERYTHING you want better, and that Tesla has done nothing to improve the overall state of EVs. The company would undoubtedly be looked at much differently if Elon were not at the helm, he draws way too much attention and is a terrible human being overall. And no, I’m not attributing anything positive about the company or the cars to Elon, I don’t think he has done shit. I give all of the credit to the actual engineers.

                • loutr
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                  8 months ago

                  You clearly have no clue about car prices in France.

  • BongsForJesus@lemmy.wtf
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    8 months ago

    While we don’t have an exact percentage, “more than 10%” means at least 14,000 employees will be laid off

    Surprisingly I thought it would be a bigger number.

    • dragontamer@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Rumors are 20% actually.

      There are numerous topics over on Reddit talking about “laid off this morning”. There was no warning, they just got fired over the weekend.

      What looks bad is the absolute urgency and callousness of this event. In fact, there are various laws at the state level (ex: California’s WARN laws: https://edd.ca.gov/en/jobs_and_training/layoff_services_warn), that require 60-days notice before a mass firing. So this “weekend layoff” is straight up illegal in some areas of the country.

      • Bakkoda
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        8 months ago

        Business have a ton of precedent these last few years that following laws isn’t cost effective. The fine is far cheaper.

        • dragontamer@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The “fine” is backpay for all the employees for months.

          Its cheaper to not pay lawyers and just do the right thing, rather than fight it and backpay all of the laid off workers anyway. WARN laws are serious, and have serious precedent. You ain’t gonna win vs them in court.

          • Bakkoda
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            8 months ago

            Collect interest on the pay they withhold, pay out eventually and probably still come out ahead. If the fine is just paying what’s owed, that’s not a fine that’s simply restitution. I don’t know anything about WARN but i have seen week of layoffs, no notice layoffs, no notice furloughs and a plethora of other, probably illegal shit in upstate NY in a lot of mfg facilities.

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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        8 months ago

        Usually you just tell them they are employed for 60 more days but are not required to come to work or do any work. Are the people on Reddit saying they are getting no more pay?

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I don’t think that law means what you think it means. They can just give you 60 days severance, they are not required to have you keep working.

        Also, I would not be surprised if they extensively use contractors, which don’t have the same protections.

        Then again, this is Musk, who reneged on his Twitter severance plans and got sued. So he very well could be trying to pull some bullshit again.

        • dragontamer@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I don’t think that law means what you think it means. They can just give you 60 days severance, they are not required to have you keep working.

          These aren’t programmers where severance is better (you don’t want a toxic programmer messing up your codebase). These are factory workers who would have been productive if they kept working.

          IE: This is a stealth factory idle. Likely because of how much the sales have dropped for Tesla. This is IMO very bad news for what Tesla expects in the near future for their sales / revenues / profits.

        • Veraxus@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Cutting contractors doesn’t count as a “layoff”. So in addition to cutting FTEs, there could be a massive number of contractors being cut loose additionally.

    • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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      8 months ago

      “We have full self driving TODAY, this is something we can do TODAY!” - Elon Musk 2017

      Still isn’t here in 2024…

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    there’s nobody left to buy him out so he’s finally going to have to figure out what step 2 is

    • capem@startrek.website
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      8 months ago

      If I was Musk, I honestly wouldn’t give a shit at this point.

      He’s wealthier than any of you can ever hope to be. I’m sure if his businesses fail he can still live a better life than any of you, too.

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        8 months ago

        It’s laughable how you say “you” rather than “us or we”, cause you aren’t making emerald trust fund baby money either, friendo.

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        8 months ago

        Clearly he doesn’t give a shit. That’s the point. He can ruin 14,000 people’s lives and go on taking his private jet from city to city to skip traffic.

      • capital@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        All he has is more money. And he still bitches and moans on Twitter all day (the site he paid 44 BILLION for haha). He’s not better or happier.

    • capital@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If not for Elon, I probably would have ended up with a Tesla for my recent EV purchase.

      I feel sorry for these workers. I wish Elon wasn’t such a piece of shit.