The reality of working for Elon Musk

 

Elon Musk is on everyone's lips. The billionaire mogul, founder of SpaceX and Tesla , has gone from being a respected CEO and thought leader to one of the most controversial figures of recent times. Musk recently received much criticism for his involvement in the Thai cave rescue operation. His attempt to rescue the children's soccer team trapped in the cave turned against him when the rescue team and the media harshly questioned whether the real intention of the mini-submarine sent by Musk was to help children or improve his public image. After this episode, Musk launched a series of aggressive tweets that only helped him to continue adding enemies.


In June 2018, Musk laid off 9% of Tesla employees while, according to different sources, he put excessive pressure on the rest of the workers to meet production quotas, which were decreasing. The work demands were so extreme that Musk began sleeping on the floor of his factory in Fremont, USA and offering Red Bull to exhausted employees to help them continue working.


Although some colleagues have expressed dissatisfaction with Musk's behavior and work demands, the CEO says the complaints about him are exaggerated and that the workplace problems were quickly resolved. As Musk told the Glassdoor website in a 2017 interview : "Your title makes you a manager, but your employees make you a leader." So what is it really like to work for Elon Musk? We consulted the comments of SpaceX and Tesla employees for the answer.


On Glassdoor's list of 2018 Best CEOs , Musk was ranked 49th for his performance at SpaceX, and currently has a 97% approval rating. By comparison, in 2017 it was ranked No. 8 and had a 98% approval rating. Approval of Musk's job at Tesla is slightly lower, at 84%.


SpaceX employees rated the company 4.4 in the second quarter of 2018 (based on a 5-point scale, where 1.0 is very dissatisfied and 5.0 is very satisfied). However, Tesla employees gave their company a 3.4 rating in the second quarter of 2018.

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