Poorly managed, burnt out employees, no vision below CEO level
Pros
Noble goal to fight climate change and revolutionize the transport industry. The company has the image to attract the best talent. Gains are short term focused so you see the result fairly quickly. The engineering group is probably the most valued asset of the company given the challenges they face.
Cons
Massively burnt out employees with no room for recovery. Teams are constantly chasing one fire after the other. Management will always over promise, and based on their lack of patience and institutional experience, work their employees to the bone to try to get close to what they had promised. Resources are not allocated for a sustainable growth plan. Finance is seen as a back end activity and is not given adequate attention, causing it to fall behind as the company grows. Management needs to realize Finance bridges the gap to connect the company owners (shareholders) to operations. If you can't rely on the financials, you should not partake in ownership of the company. Tesla gets a free pass at a lot of it's activities due to the brand image. There are a lot of hidden bodies that are bound to be found at some point. The culture encourages somewhat of a cover up or a way to push financial issues down the road. Top dollar is paid to make a nasty outlook and financial result, seem good...but again, they don't get enough scrutiny. If an employee raises an issue that is not on management's list of 'will this news bring more money' ... it get's buried and the employee is removed from future meetings so they always get filtered. This is a big reason as to why there is such high turnover in the Finance and Accounting group. Throwing money (equity) their way just makes them more uncomfortable in doing the dirty work. Invest the money, get more reliable results, an investors need to aware that even the auditors are drinking the Kool Aid in expectation that their profile will have the next Google or Apple. The SEC and PCAOB should really look deeper. Ask the employees who left as to why they left. 'Anonymous feedback' posted by the SEC is mocked and people are actively sought to try to find a 'one on one' fix, which is ridiculous. I was extremely uncomfortable with such behavior having come from an audit background and could not endorse such behavior from Legal or Finance. Dare to say anything, and you will be cornered. On the flip side, the Tesla stories are all over the Bay Area and because of the 'Kool Aid' affect, other companies will hire people leaving Tesla. Take advantage while you can. There is limited career growth.
