Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.
The break is unusually long, the workers said. Production lines were up and running during the same period last year, they said.
The electric vehicle maker notified employees earlier this week. The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.
Tesla deliveries dropped 13% year over year during the first quarter.
I mean, you’d be stupid to not come in, right? Who wants an involuntary unpaid vacation?
I’ve done it before. When we were working 64 hour weeks? Fuck yeah I’m taking that time off. It also said they could use PTO. The thing is, everywhere I’ve ever worked, there was never just “one week” of it off. It’s like one week every 4-6 weeks as it’s slowing down. Hell, I’m on one now. It’s basically to avoid layoffs and losing experienced workers.
Also, when you get a week off like that, it’s considered a layoff. So you can apply for unemployment for that time. If you keep calling in and reporting your working hours during the time that you’re back, you don’t have to refile for the next time it happens. Which will happen again in a couple weeks/months. The weird thing to me is that this is being reported on. It happens all the time, it could be for inventory adjustment, or because they’re having problems procuring parts due to tariffs. Or retooling/maintenance.
My point is, this doesn’t mean a whole lot as of yet. If it happens several more times over the coming months, then that means something. Especially since the stock isn’t going down like it was.
Setting aside the Musk/Trump shennanigans and their impact on the Tesla brand as a whole, though…they’re also talking about the Cybertruck.
I can believe that maybe they keep demand for the Model Y at a sustained long-term level, but I have a hard time believing that the Cybertruck is going to take off. I mean, if there’s enough commonality across lines, then maybe they can use the Cybertruck workers elsewhere, but I just don’t think that the Cybertruck is going to become a big success.
Like, at some point, they gotta cut their losses on that thing.
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/tesla-cybertruck-sales-musk-b2746688.html
None of that surprises me. The cyber truck is a flop so it makes sense to “inventory adjust” a week for them. And you can likely expect that trend to continue. Nice of them to give time off for their workers to enjoy the spring weather, right? 😉
The model Y just got a facelift, though. And whenever that happens, there are hiccups. That being said, you would think production would be going full bore for it from generated excitement from the refresh.They could have found a flaw that stopped production while they fix the issue, or it could be that the excitement that they expected isn’t there. Knowing Tesla, it’s likely both.
And oh yeah, we’re not using dollars any more, you get paid in CT’s now
What you quoted says “paid time off”
Edit: TIL that PTO means different in the US. Thanks for the explanations and downvotes 👍
Yes, which likely comes from their annual leave. Otherwise, why offer an alternative?
Paid time off (PTO) is what American companies call paid vacation because they don’t offer paid sick leave. You have to use vacation time if you want to get paid for a sick Day