According to Reuters, Elon Musk urged Tesla executives to halt all global hiring because he had a "very awful feeling" about the economy and needed to slash 10% of the company's personnel. According to Tesla's annual SEC filing, the company employed almost 100,000 workers at the end of last year, implying that thousands of jobs could be lost.
Musk's remarks come two days after he delivered a note to all Tesla employees instructing them to return to work or leave. According to Electrek, his initial email was labelled "remote work is no longer acceptable" and looked to be sent just to executive employees.
Musk wrote, "The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence. This is why I lived in the factory so much — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt."
Musk said on Thursday that "recessions serve a vital economic cleansing function" in response to a tweet by Scott Farquhar, an Australian tech billionaire, who encouraged Tesla employees to look into its remote-work positions.