Tesla factory manager scolds workers over 65,000 missing coffee cups

Tesla’s Berlin factory has ordered 65,000 mugs over the last two years, according to a report in a German newspaper.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Tesla’s Berlin factory has a missing coffee mugs problem, a German newspaper reported.
A factory manager said he would remove all breakroom cutlery until the thefts end, Handelsblatt reported.
The manager reportedly said they had ordered 65,000 mugs since the factory opened two years ago.

Tesla’s Berlin factory has a coffee mug problem. They apparently keep going missing.

While Tesla’s Berlin factory has generated plenty of headlines over the past two years, this is the first time we’ve read about any concerns over coffee cup thefts.

Tesla plant manager Andre Thierig addressed the issue during a staff meeting last week, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported.

“I’m just going to give you a figure,” Thierig said, according to German outlet DW’s translation of the report. “We’ve bought 65,000 coffee mugs since we started production here. 65,000! Statistically speaking, each of you already has five Ikea coffee cups at home.”

While the factory’s 12,000 employees may be keen to take the cups home, Thierig assured that there would be no more cutlery in breakrooms until the mug thefts stopped, according to the newspaper’s report.

“I’m really tired of approving orders to buy more coffee cups,” he said, which got some laughter and clapping from employees, according to DW’s translation.

The apparently somewhat lighthearted ribbing may have come as a light palette cleanser after any heavier discussions on the tensions between Tesla and IG Metall, a German union representing workers at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Germany.

Workers have reportedly criticized the carmaker’s working conditions, including long work hours and alleged there have been numerous work accidents.