Even Tesla employees who were so dedicated to their jobs that they slept in their cars and showered at the factory couldn’t escape mass layoffs at the EV company.
Nico Murillo, 29, was told last month that his employer of five years had fired him without warning.
Murillo said a production manager at Tesla’s Fremont, Calif., factory received an email on his way to work Monday morning stating that his position would be eliminated due to restructuring. Post on LinkedIn.
Murillo continued to drive to the factory in disbelief, but when he arrived he tried to swipe his badge, but a security guard took it away. His work account was also deactivated.
“I got my badge and went to the turnstile and it didn’t respond, it turned red and it started beeping. I thought, ‘Is this real?'” he said. told KTVU.
Murillo is one of about 14,000 employees Tesla has laid off since April, a shocking 10% of the company’s global workforce.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the layoffs a “difficult decision” in an April 15 memo to all employees as the EV maker grapples with declining sales.
Mr. Murillo joined Tesla in 2019 as a production staff member and rose to lead production staff and eventually production supervisor.
He said, “I sacrificed a lot for the company.”
For a period last year, Murillo was basically living in his car in the factory parking lot on weekdays to avoid his daily hour-and-a-half commute.
He microwaved dinner in the factory break room, showered at the facility, and slept in his car in the parking lot.
Despite the sacrifice and inhumane layoff, Murillo is grateful for his time at Telsa, which provided him with severance.
He drives a Tesla Model Y and proudly wears Tesla gear.
“I think Tesla really taught me how to overcome challenges quickly,” he told KTVU.
Murillo has already taken a new job as a manager at a GNC store in Pleasanton, and told a local Fox affiliate that he plans to put his home up for sale so he can live on the street for a while.
“An analogy is, I play soccer and things go wrong and the other team gets the ball and then you have to work with what you got.” Murillo said.
