Tesla Employee Says He Lost His Job Despite Sacrifices: 'Sat In My Car In Disbelief'

Tesla has joined tech giants like Google and Meta in cutting off its workforce. Reuters reported in April that Tesla was planning to lay off more than 10 per cent of its global workforce, which included even the higher executives. On April 15, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, Drew Baglino, left the company after 18 years. On the same day, Tesla’s vice president for public policy Rohan Patel also announced his departure after 8 years. Recently, a former Tesla employee who worked at the company for five years took to LinkedIn and recounted how he was laid off “without any prior notice". His post has gone viral with over 67,000 reactions.

Nico Murillo, the former production supervisor at Tesla, shared that on 15th April, he logged into his work account at 4:30 am but he got the notice that his account had been deactivated. He thought that it was an IT issue which would be resolved soon. At 5 am, while he was on his way to the office, he got an email that said, “Unfortunately as a result, your position has been eliminated by this restructuring." Nico texted his manager, and his manager said “everyone got it, we’ll get more info later". When Nico reached the Tesla office and tried to get the entry, the security guard took his badge. By 6 am Nico was in disbelief. In just a matter of hours, he was laid off from a company where he worked for five years from 2019 to 2014.

The 29-year-old shared how he compromised his lifestyle to give his best to Tesla and wrote, “At one point in 2023 I was even sacrificing sleeping in my car on work days just to avoid commuting to work. Showered at the factory and slept in the parking lot. Microwaved dinner in the break room. Sacrificed a lot for the company." Despite being heartbroken, Nico expressed optimism towards his future and wrote, “This is just a small part of a chapter that is ending, and there’s a whole book waiting to be written."

Nico also recalled how he grew up in the ranks through the years and thanked his late supervisor Louie Afusia, who passed away in February 2023, for his mentorship. He wrote, “Louie taught me about delegating, following up, and finishing through. He used to tell me: ‘listen to the people, not against them.’"

In the comments, many people wished Nico luck in his future endeavours. One LinkedIn user wrote, “There’s always room for talent and who knows, it might be a million times better than you can imagine. Stay strong and don’t let it get on you." Another person wrote, “It sucks being laid off, but looks like you have a great attitude towards it already ???? You will land on your feet and be all the more resilient on the other side."