[Latheesh]

Came across this leaked Tesla's employee handbook. There could be real detailed guidelines somewhere else, but this snippet is funny and straightforward.

[alpha1]

Although a move in good direction by reducing the clutter, unfortunately I can guarantee that when a matter comes up it would be resolved in arbitrary fashion and the arbitrator dependent unless there is some rule book.

E.g. definition of stupid stuff

[saisree]

Like the way they have charted out on What is expected of you and what you should expect. Neat, Short and Crisp.

Outside employment- Seriously. Unless a part timer do they think any regular employee will have time to spend on other employment?

[Jeroen]

i quite like this. I have worked for very small companies, that had no rule book at all and very large multinationals, that seem to have a rule for just about every little minute detail of your working life.

This handbook appeals to people’s common sense. Do not do, to others what you do not want done to yourself. It does set a few boundaries, that will get you dismissed.

I would think that the vast majority of employees would be quite happy with this. A small percentage of people would feel they need more guidance. Tesla might not be the best place for them to work.

An even smaller percentage of employees is going to get themselves into trouble over this handbook. Those are the ones that will get themselves into trouble no matter what. No handbook, a handbook with a billion rules, a handbook like this, there are certain people that are just like this, no matter what.

I always maintain that good managers and leaders do not need endles written rules. I do expect them to be fair and transparant. Within departments, units people usually have an acute sense of who the slackers are. Who are the ones that don’t belong. And they want management to intervene. It is not just about what is fair towards the employee that gets dismissed, but also whether the other employees feel they get treated fairly.

At the same time, I am not sure how long Tesla can keep this up. We have seen the same with other companies, think Google, Apple. They were hugely innovative in the way they dealt with employees. But as they grew they also had to resort to some more detailled instructions for everybody.

Will be interesting to see how this works. Would love to hear if this is all the have in their factory in Germany (or the Netherlands). Unions won’t like it. Too vague in their thinking, to much ambiguity, too much reliance on management fair judgement etc.

Jeroen

[Thermodynamics]

Although the rule book appears abstract, I felt it very pushy. Reminds me of iPhone project and bossiness of Steve.

What I liked most
1. Communication - your line manager is powerful but also knows that you are talking to everyone above him.
2. Trust - greatly simplifies decision makings
3. Outside employment - although the rules here aren’t clear, appreciate the goodwill to allow employees in need of additional income.

Critics
There are contradicting dimensions that indicate the rule book is going to get complicated sooner than later.
1. It has vague rules but harsh penalties.
2. They seem to be very particular about exceptional performance and gun time attendance. They want you give better reasons for personal leaves. Why would I disclose my personal reasons. It goes against their other slogans “we trust you”, ”have fun”, ”be yourself”.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by saisree

Like the way they have charted out on What is expected of you and what you should expect. Neat, Short and Crisp.

Outside employment- Seriously. Unless a part timer do they think any regular employee will have time to spend on other employment?

You have to understand that this is a Car company. And in jobs which happen on the shop floor, people often need to do multiple jobs to just afford rent in the Bay area. In typical software white collar work environments, it is easy to assume one job to be enough, but in the Bay area, many people outside high tech actually do multiple jobs.

Those who cannot, often leave their families behind and lived in shared accommodation in apartments like college students

[Jeroen]

On this Outside employment, many company have a similar policy. It is not unique to car companies or the bay area.

Why people hold multiple jobs could be very different though. For some it could be due to the fact otherwise they just can not make ends meet. Which I think is pretty sad, but it is reality in some parts of the world. Actually the USA is probably one of the places where many people simply require multiple jobs all over the states! Not so sure why some would consider that “Great”, but that is a different discussion all together

In my company anybody can have an additional job, but you need to report it and it will get formally approved. The only thing that concerns us would be potential conflict of interests.

At one point in time I remember we actually promoted our staff having some additional employment. The idea was that the broader our staff was orientated, the better it was for everybody.

I have always, until recently, various side lines. Usually teaching various topics at universities and colleges and or developing courses. For a very long time I was MD of a small private investment company. None of these job would take more than a few hours a week.

These days we see some of our employees getting involved in all sorts of innovative start up initiatives, Just about anything goes. And it also goes across all ranks. Some of our top AI people also publish a lot of books. Again, we don’t mind as long as they don’t give away any of our confidential stuff.

Actually, it is great for a company if some of its employees are recognised as experts or leading authorities outside the direct context of their regular employment.

So this is more a case of individuals pursuing a personal (paid) interest outside their regular job. I am all for it! I am a huge believer in personal development and it does not get much better than this!

Jeroen