Pros
Tesla Motors truly has an excellent product and a grand mission to solve the world's problems. CEO/founder Elon Musk is an inspiration and leader for our generation and these are reasons why I wanted to start a career with Tesla and why I stuck around so long. A game changing and innovative company.
Kontras
With new companies come growing pains and in my case the sales department. At my particular location I experienced a lot of disappointment in company decisions and who they allow to call the shots. After being hired as an owner advisor (sales person) I got a substantial salary pay cut after only two weeks. I was told to "roll with the punches" and "aren't I lucky to be part of this great mission and the Tesla team?" I continued the job but not without notifying HR that it seemed extremely misleading and unfair considering I had turned down other job offers to work at Tesla with the initial income we agreed upon in mind. They reminded me that they can change how much they pay their employees, that changes could be made whenever they want, as often as they want and there's nothing I can do about it. The general public seems to think that the sales staff is commission based or receives a large percentage of commission per car and this is not true. Unlike car dealerships, the sales staff is either hourly or salary with a lousy fluctuating commission of under $100 per car (average Model S sells for about 110k). That being said, the overall pay is nowhere near what people think. Tesla tends to hire a young staff and seeks "energetic and innovative talent" but this could be because no seasoned professional would tolerate drastic company-wide policy changes and what goes on behind the scenes. I left a career at Tesla Motors because I could not tolerate my manager's behavior one moment longer. I contacted HR multiple times because he had created such a hostile work environment. Every co-worker I had at the time and every single one after me has contacted HR about this man. Every single one. He's a huge liability to the company and yet miraculously still has the same job, having only been given light warnings for his actions. Early on while I was still training he cursed me out in front of customers and my new coworkers. He wanted me to follow around one of the sales members like a puppy, not leaving their side and when I went across the room to get something he used profanities at me because I disobeyed his orders and wasn't following their every shadow. He told me to pretend like I have a rope tied to my waist and my co-workers waist. This was in front of my new colleagues and a customer he was talking to. It was humiliating and demeaning. I would soon come to find that this guy lives for drama. He tries to play the employees against each other by stirring up rumors and gossip and creating jealousy by giving sales-orders (and with it commission) to whomever he likes most that week. He curses at employees, yells and points in their faces, makes employees come into work on days off and makes them do excessive work from home during time off. So much verbal abuse, harassment, drama, ego-trips, power-trips, and aggression. It often left the staff shaking, crying or just quitting all together. I was eventually offered a promotion and graciously accepted. I'd be transferring to the delivery department and would finally get away from this guy. Weeks turned into months before I went to job shadow. It was 5 months later before they were ready for me but it wasn't at the location I had been promised and training at rather an hour and a half away. I declined because I did not want a 3 hour daily commute and was always told I'd be working at the place 20 minutes from my house. When I declined they tried putting me on a guilt trip saying, "it's a shame you'd pass up such an amazing opportunity because of your car. And we were going to offer you ___(an amount lower than my sales salary)". In short, it was never a promotion, just a way to incise me to work there. Some say delivery is worse than sales. A guy I know who works there is sometimes required to work seven days a week during every end of the quarter. Seven! How is this legally possible? For the 60-70 hour work weeks he put in (I am not exaggerating here) his salary divided into hourly didn't fall below minimum wage so it was legal even though he was working around the clock, making minimum wage with no overtime compensation. Once the realization hit that there was no place better to transfer to (unless I wanted to relocate to headquarters in Palo Alto) I knew my days with Tesla were officially numbered. The last straw came when my manger came into work on his day off for the sole purpose of yelling at me because he didn't like the way I worded an email. Worst work experience of my life. So bittersweet because everyone who finds out I worked for Tesla praises the car, the company and knows me to be passionate for the cause (I drive an EV and still preach Tesla). But if they know me well enough, they've heard the stories of a company that's still working out the kinks and a sales manager who is so absurdly inappropriate and out of line.