Some former employees say Tesla’s high turnover rate is due to billionaire Elon Musk’s leadership style.

Ahead of the Robotaxi event – an important day that Elon Musk affirmed as “a memorable day in history”, many senior leaders of Tesla have resigned. Specifically, last week, 4 subordinates who worked directly with CEO Elon Musk said they had left the company.

Elon Musk worked directly with more than 30 directors. Three people who left said the departure of senior leaders was due to Musk’s management style.
Some former employees say Tesla’s high turnover rate is due to billionaire Elon Musk’s leadership style.
Specifically, on October 3, in a company-wide meeting, Tesla employees were informed that Chief Information Officer (CIO) Nagesh Saldi would leave Tesla after nearly 12 years of service.

Tesla’s director of public policy and business development, Jos Dings, announced on LinkedIn that he left Tesla on October 1. On October 6, Marc Van Impe, Tesla’s head of global vehicle safety and automation policy, also announced on LinkedIn that he had left the company.

On LinkedIn, Dings said he was taking a career break, while Van Impe announced he was moving to an advisory role at SpaceX. Van Impe spent four years deploying Tesla’s driver-assist technology in international markets, according to his LinkedIn profile.

On October 4, David Zhang, Tesla’s former Model S and Model X program manager, also announced on LinkedIn that he had left the company. Zhang’s LinkedIn profile shows that he “parted ways” with Tesla in July, but he only made it public last Friday.

Tesla’s former head of vehicle programs, Daniel Ho, also announced on LinkedIn on September 29 that he had left and joined Waymo as its new program director.

Musk announced Ho’s departure in April, one of several executives leaving Tesla after Elon Musk announced the company would cut 10% of its workforce. Musk has lost eight executives at Tesla in the past year. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

Some former employees blame Musk’s leadership style for Tesla’s high turnover rate. “Every few years Elon Musk is cutting people or restructuring, and you have to start over from scratch. It’s exhausting to keep up with that pace,” a former manager told Business Insider.

Another former senior employee said that more and more Tesla employees no longer believed in Elon Musk’s vision, especially after the billionaire turned his attention to acquiring Twitter in 2022. “Many people at Tesla are tired of the noise,” the person said.

One former manager, who resigned earlier this year, said the April layoffs had left many senior executives thinking about leaving the company. “We try to keep our team together,” he said, but “it’s really tiring.”