Many may have found that working for billionaire Elon Musk is a nightmare. But Musk’s managerial image being reflected these days is slightly different. Although Musk is no longer the richest person in the world, his terrors still scare his employees. Sometimes, even the customers: Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz recently said her Twitter account was suspended after she asked Elon Musk for comment on a story. “I received zero communication from Twitter on why I was suspended or what terms I violated,” Lorenz wrote. Her account had more than 340,000 followers before it was suspended.
Employer Musk
Last month, Elon Musk told Twitter staff that they should expect to work 80-hour weeks. 80-hours? Now that’s a lot of time. Not only that but working for the visionary entrepreneur comes with a certain set of expectations. Working for Elon Musk is tougher than any other celebrity, entrepreneur, or even CEO. In normal cases. For example, CEOs expect their employees to work hard, and often long hours. But with Elon Musk, it’s all about the details. For Musk, details not only mean coming up with innovative ideas but also perfecting them.
Musk’s Fury over the Employees
Tim Higgins’ 2021 Tesla book “Power Play” offers insight into Musk’s anger. Musk’s fury has seen many executives, including Peter Rawlinson, leave the company. Meanwhile, employees have learned to avoid Musk if something is wrong and important to them. An example of this is in 2017 when Musk was looking for someone to blame after his plans for automation failed. According to Wired writer Charles Duhigg, Musk summoned a young engineer and shouted “Hey, buddy, this doesn’t work! Did you do this? Did you f— do this? You’re a f— idiot! Get the f— out and don’t come back!”
The conversation between Elon Musk and the engineer working for him was quite like this:
“Hey, buddy, this doesn’t work!” he shouted at the engineer, another employee told Duhigg. “Did you do this?”
“You mean, program the robot?” the engineer said. “Or design that tool?”
“Did you f— do this?” Musk asked him.
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to?” the engineer replied apologetically.
“You’re a f— idiot!” Musk shouted back. “Get the f— out and don’t come back!”
Despite being the owner of some of the world’s largest empires like SpaceX and Tesla, the above conversation alone is enough to clearly depict Elon Musk as a terribly complicated master in the eyes of his employees. This also shows that he loves using force, terror, and power instead of creating a friendly, happy, and creative working environment for his employees, working day and night for him.
Controversies Surrounding Elon Musk (The Employer)
Elon Musk’s behavior has been a source of controversy for some time. Recently, eight former employees of SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Musk, have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging they had been retaliated against for writing a letter that was critical of the CEO. The letter, which was first circulated in June and obtained by the Verge, addressed Musk’s public behavior, noting that it had become a source of embarrassment and distraction. The letter also addressed a joke Musk had tweeted about a report suggesting he had paid a company flight attendant who accused him of sexual harassment a settlement of $250,000. However, Musk has denied the allegations.
Placing the Twitter’s future at stake, what Mr. Musk has been doing with the social media giant has bewildered the world. As part of a $44 billion acquisition, Elon Musk emailed employees to offer 3 months of severance if they did not want to work on a “Twitter 2.0.” He then cut staff, terminated critics, reduced infrastructure, and proclaimed Twitter must make more money or face bankruptcy. He also wants to focus on subscription products and advertising.
What Musk’s Ex-employees Say
From retaliatory firings to rampant sexism and racism, working for Musk is a far cry from the utopian vision of a revolutionary workplace he often touts. More than once, records show that he has displayed a spirit of retaliation toward employees who raise issues. Cristina Balan was fired after emailing Musk about product design safety issues. She’s been trying to sue Tesla for defamation ever since, but Tesla lawyers have kept her evidence from a judge.
However, employees have also revealed the crucial bright side of working with Elon Musk. For example, nine former Tesla employees who had experience working with the tech mogul from 2010 to 2019, shared their impressions of him. According to them, Musk is known to be very smart, highly energetic, and responsive to social media. While these traits may sound attractive, his expectations for his employees are extremely high. In addition, he wants them to be better and will not hesitate to set unrealistic goals. Moreover, senior-level employees do not always get the autonomy they need to do their jobs.
On the other hand, when Musk pays attention to a project, it can be both positive and negative. He often thinks outside the box, which can lead to innovative solutions. But it can also lead to him setting unrealistic goals.
“Influenced by” social media?
One of the former employees said, “What triggers him to act and make a decision is what he reads on social media.” This shows that working for a person with extremely high standards and expectations, particularly Elon Musk, can be intimidating for some.
Sexism?
Another example of working with Elon Musk is widespread whispers about sexism. At SpaceX, sexism ran rampant according to Ashley Kosak, a former engineer, who said “countless men” made sexual advances and that no action was taken when she reported it.
Racism?
Likewise, black workers at Tesla have complained of racism in the workplace for years, including being called monkeys and other slurs, being given the worst jobs, and being fired for reporting incidents to HR. Tesla contested these accounts, claiming they prohibit discrimination.
Twitter (As we can see)
After taking over Twitter, Elon Musk became the owner and CEO of the social media platform on October 27, 2022. And immediately after acquiring the social media company for $44 billion, Musk started by firing Twitter officials including the then Chief Executive Parag Agrawal. Hundreds of workers, who speculated that working with Elon Musk was impossible for them, decided to leave the troubled social network.
How long have average employees stayed with Elon over the years?
Although employee tenure in the US has risen over the past few decades, even passing through four recessions, the average employee still stays on the job for an average of 4.1 years. Management and/or professional occupations tend to stick around a bit longer, with an average of 4.9 years, while those in service occupations average just under two years. In January 2022, men’s median employee tenure was 4.3 years, while women’s median tenure was 3.8 years. 28% of men and 26% of women had 10 years or more of tenure with their current employer. Among older workers, the median tenure was 9.8 years, which was more than three times that of younger workers (2.8 years).
Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors is revolutionizing the automotive industry with its electric vehicles (EVs). Studies show that employees at Elon Musk’s Tesla stay working with the company for 3.7 years on average.
Tesla’s staff is indeed diverse, with 22.0% females and 48.5% ethnic minorities. Among 14% female and 50% white employees working for Elon Musk at SpaceX, the average tenure is 3.6 years. Though, as the billionaire has recently acquired Twitter, it’s yet to see whether its employees will enjoy staying longer in the company. But one thing is for sure settling the displayed issues seems to take longer as the CEO himself once warned that the company might go bankrupt.
SpaceX Length of Employment (As of July 2022)
The data above shows that most of the employees (38%) working for Elon Musk’s SpaceX leave him in just less than a year.
Salary and Compensation
As of 2022, Elon Musk’s Tesla employees are paid an average of $110,192, or $52 per hour. And the highest-paid job is a Director of Sales at $225,480 and the lowest is a Receptionist at $38,015 annually. And Tesla employees surprisingly rank their Compensation in the Top 30% of similar-sized companies on Comparably.
Likewise, a plurality of employees at SpaceX earns $40k-60k a year – 39% of employees. The least common salary at SpaceX is <$25k – 1% of SpaceX employees earn a salary of less than $25k.
SpaceX Jobs Listings by Salary Range (As of July 2022)
Starting from <$25k a year, the highest salary for employees working in Elon Musk’s SpaceX is $200k annually. It’s quite satisfactory, isn’t it?
Twitter Jobs Listings by Salary Range (As of July 2022)
As of July 2022, Twitter’s Engineering Manager is the highest-paying job with an average salary of $208,734 and an average hourly rate of $100.35. The overall average salary at Twitter is $146,546 per year ($70.45 per hour). The average starting salary for a Twitter employee is $106,000 a year or $50.96 per hour.
Highest Paying Jobs at Twitter
| Rank | Job Title | Average Salary | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engineering Manager | $208,734 | |
| 2 | Product Manager | $150,003 | |
| 3 | Reliability Engineer | $148,433 | |
| 4 | Application Software Developer | $147,894 | |
| 5 | Software Engineer | $138,943 | |
| 6 | Data Scientist | $138,076 | |
| 7 | Product Designer | $126,636 | |
| 8 | User Experience Researcher | $114,103 | |
| 9 | Data Analyst | $112,938 | |
| 10 | Business Intelligence Analyst | $112,801 | |
| 11 | Graphic Designer | $79,580 |
The above data illustrates that Twitter employees get paid better than Elon Musk’s other two companies: Tesla and SpaceX. However, the latest turmoil in the social media giant has produced an unprecedented amount of uncertainty about the company’s future.
Conclusion
Most of the employees working for Elon Musk do seem uncertain about their future. However, for iconic personalities like Elon Musk, establishing proper systems assures their employees’ future, and it is a must. That simply inspires employees to spend their energy for the betterment of the company, something Elon’s current way of doing things doesn’t, which we can clearly see with Twitter.
