Rich Otto, the Product Launch Manager at Tesla, has announced his departure from Tesla after nearly seven years of service. In a public statement, this veteran Tesla employee who failed to break free from the fate of the "seven-year itch" clearly has a lot of resentment towards Musk's announcement of a major layoff earlier this year.
According to a statement released by Rich Otto on LinkedIn on Wednesday this week, he resigned last week.
Previously, he worked at Tesla for nearly 7 years and participated in important company events such as the first delivery of Model S Plaid and Cybertruck.
Otto stated in a statement, "A great company is made up of great employees and great products, and great products can only be achieved when employees are thriving. The recent layoffs have shaken the company and its morale, causing this harmony to lose balance and making it difficult to see long-term development. It is time to make changes."
Otto also stated, "Tesla's uniqueness lies in its culture of collaboration with anyone: this means that great ideas and influence can come from anyone, serving as a catalyst for employees to step out of their comfort zone, undertake large-scale projects, and thrive."
"I hope Tesla and all employees affected by layoffs can quickly recover. If there is anything I can help with, feel free to contact me," Otto said.
Feeling disheartened under major layoffs
Undoubtedly, according to Otto's statement, Tesla's decision to lay off employees on a large scale this year was the main reason for its final decision to leave Tesla.
In an effort to cope with cooling demand and investor concerns about profits, Tesla CEO Musk announced in April this year that the company plans to lay off 10% of its workforce. The company issued a layoff memo signed by Musk to its employees that month, which mentioned the need for streamlining personnel and reducing duplicate labor.
The memo states, "This will enable us to strive for excellence, innovate courageously, and have a strong desire for the next growth cycle."
According to American media reports, since then, the company has laid off the entire supercharging business unit. On April 29th local time, Musk sent a memo within the company announcing that Rebecca Tinucci, the head of Tesla's supercharging team, and Daniel Ho, the new product manager, will resign with the entire team, which has approximately 500 employees.
In addition, Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President in charge of engineering and technology development for Tesla's batteries, motors, and energy products, also resigned in April.
The layoffs come at a time of turmoil for Musk and Tesla, after Tesla released a disappointing first quarter delivery report last month.
This electric vehicle manufacturer delivered only 386783 vehicles in the first quarter, far below the analyst's expected 457000 vehicles tracked by FactSet. Compared to the 423000 electric vehicles delivered in the first quarter of 2023, this number has also experienced a significant decline.
The company is currently facing increasingly fierce competition, and the entire electric vehicle industry must also address the cooling demand. Tesla has repeatedly lowered prices last year to stimulate demand, but this has caused a drag on the company's profit margin.
Meanwhile, Tesla's stock price has performed the worst among the S&P 500 index so far this year, with a cumulative decline of 30.4%, while the S&P 500 index has risen by 9% in the same period.