Tesla CEO Elon Musk has issued an apology to his staff for a major mistake. After Tesla laid off about 14,000 employees earlier this week, which equates to a 10% reduction in its workforce, Musk emailed his staff apologizing for the quality of the severance packages that were sent out to the outgoing employees, according to a recent report from CNBC.
“As we reorganize Tesla it has come to my attention that some severance packages are incorrectly low,” Musk wrote in the email, which was seen by CNBC. “My apologies for this mistake. It is being corrected immediately.”
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On April 14, Musk sent an email to Tesla (TSLA) staff members informing them that the job reductions are the result of the company’s “rapid growth,” and that it was a “difficult decision” to make after the company conducted a “thorough review of the organization.”
“Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe,” wrote Musk in the email. “With this rapid growth there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas.”
Musk’s apology for low severance pay, comes after he was sued last month by former Twitter executives for allegedly declining to pay them severance after “firing them without reason,” according to the lawsuit. The executives claim that Musk owes them $128 million in severance pay.
“Musk’s refusal to pay Plaintiffs their benefits is part of a larger pattern of refusing to pay Twitter’s former employees the benefits and other compensation they are due,” reads the lawsuit.
Musk officially took over Twitter, now known as X, on October 27, 2022, and later claimed in an interview that he shrunk its staff by 80% (cutting more than 6,000 employees) since acquiring the company. He said that the job cuts were his attempt to save the company from going bankrupt.
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"The issue is like the company's going to go bankrupt if we do not cut costs immediately," he said in the interview with BBC last year. "This is not a caring, uncaring situation. It's like if the whole ship sinks then nobody's got a job.”
The lawsuit also claims that Musk has gained a “reputation for not paying his bills” since he took over the social media platform.
“The Company has faced a staggering number of lawsuits from its vendors and service providers across a range of industries, all seeking money they are owed for bills that Musk refuses to pay,” reads the lawsuit. “These include lawsuits from software vendors, landlords, consultants, and office custodial workers, among many other groups.”
There is even a website that tracks Twitter/X’s alleged missed payments, which the lawsuit references, and the person who runs the website has allegedly been banned from the social media platform.
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