Local Tesla staff take to LinkedIn seeking work after carmaker’s global cull

A senior Tesla staffer involved in recruitment has taken to social media seeking work for a number of team members following a global workplace cull.

Australian Tesla staff are taking to LinkedIn to search for work. Picture: Getty Images

Tesla head of recruitment David Tracey on Friday took to social media in search of work for axed members of his team.

Mr Tracey, the first local Tesla executive to talk publicly about the company’s global lay-offs, has led recruitment for the global electric vehicle company for two years.

His post to the site said he was seeking opportunities for former staff, whom he described as some of “the smartest, most resourceful, professional and talented recruitment partners” he had worked with.

The six staff are among a global axing at the Elon Musk-run company, which wants to retrench more than 10 per cent of its 140,000-person workforce. That doesn’t include what is understood to be a major hiring freeze and a number of rescinded local contracts.

“Due to a global reorganisation at Tesla we have unfortunately made headcount reductions in our Australia and New Zealand recruitment team,” Mr Tracey wrote.

“This exceptional team has been fundamental to the ongoing success of Tesla’s growth story in ANZ and I could not be more proud of what they have achieved.”

Tesla is yet to return calls to local media but Mr Musk has been more forthcoming, writing in emails to executives that the company needed to be “absolutely hard core” in its restructure.

But what that looks like locally appears to have even the most senior management in Australia perplexed. Company insiders told The Australian it appeared that nobody knows what to expect of the current lay-offs.

In Australia, the atmosphere has been tense in local offices, where many have chosen to work from home rather than sit in an uncomfortable silence.

This week marked four weeks since the global campaign to reduce costs began and it’s understood as many as 50 local staff have since been let go.

That figure included a large number of staff from Tesla’s Supercharger division, where one now local laid-off staff member told EFTM that the move had caught the entire team by surprise.

As many as 500 staff are set to be affected by the disbanding of the Supercharger division, including senior director of charging Rebecca Tinucci. Another senior executive, Daniel Ho, who led new products for Tesla, has been let go.

Local staff affected have since taken to Microsoft’s jobs platform LinkedIn to share the news of their departure and that they were now open to work.

One email reportedly sent from Mr Musk to laid-off staff’s personal emails read: “Effective now, you will not need to perform any further work and therefore will no longer have access to Tesla systems and physical locations,” according to Business Insider.

A broader memo sent to all staff last month from Mr Musk spoke of how the company had “grown rapidly” and how that had led to “duplication” of positions.

“As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” the memo read.

“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organisation and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10 per cent globally.”