Elon Musk is getting more involved at Tesla, demands personal approval on all new hires
Days after announcing Twitter’s new CEO,
Elon Musk sent an email instructing
Tesla employees to get his approval for all new hires.
Steve Nesius/Reuters
Elon Musk told staff he must approve all new Tesla hires, even contractors, in a company-wide email.
The Tesla CEO said executives should “think carefully” before sending him a new hire.
It’s a sign Musk might be shifting more of his focus back to Tesla after finding a new Twitter CEO.
Elon Musk is making a change at Tesla: The CEO wants to personally sign-off on each new hire.
“Think carefully before sending me the request,” Musk wrote in an email obtained by Insider. “No one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, until you receive my email approval.”
In the Monday morning email, the Tesla CEO said that he wants “to gain a better understanding of our hiring” and executives should send him a list of their candidates once a week for approval. The EV blog Electrek was the first to report on the email.
Last year, Tesla employed nearly 130,000 people and grew its head count by about 30,000. The company’s hiring process is already very competitive. In 2022, the carmaker said it received over 3.6 million applications.
However, it’s not a new strategy for Musk. In 2019, he sent a similar email asking for approval of all new hires.
The recent email comes only a few days after Musk announced he had found a new CEO to helm Twitter. The billionaire said former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino will take over his role as Twitter CEO in about six weeks, and that he would shift into a CTO role overseeing product at the social network.
Tesla shares climbed on the news and investors appeared to celebrate the news that Musk would be turning more of his attention back to the electric-car maker. Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives said in a note that the move will allow Musk to “finally remove this lingering albatross” when it comes to running Twitter.
Since Musk took over as Twitter CEO in November, some Tesla shareholders have expressed concern over his focus on the social-media company as Musk has taken to sleeping at its headquarters. Most recently, several Tesla investors wrote an open letter saying Musk had been “distracted” by other ventures and calling for him to be reined in.
A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
Read Musk’s full email titled “Hiring” below:
I would like to gain a better understanding of our hiring. VPs should send me a list of their department hiring requests once a week.
Think carefully before sending me the request. No one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, until you receive my email approval.
Thanks,
Elon
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