Tesla Rewards Dedicated Worker Who Showered at Factory and Slept in His Car by Firing Him

"Sat in my car in disbelief."

Firing Offense

By his own account, Nico Murillo was a dedicated Tesla employee. Last year, the production supervisor didn't go home and instead slept inside his car in the factory parking lot and made microwave meals — just so he could help meet production goals.

In spite of all that effort, earlier this month Murillo got laid off, according to a viral LinkedIn post he wrote, along with more than 10 percent of Tesla employees — or about 14,000 workers across the world — as part of a huge company shake up.

Murillo, a California resident, wrote how he had logged onto his company account on April 15 and found it deactivated.

Thinking it was a tech issue, he drove to the Fremont factory, but on the way there he received an unsettling email while driving his Tesla vehicle on Autopilot, informing him that "your position has been eliminated by this restructuring."

After trying to get into the factory, he was turned away by security who also told him that he was laid off.

"Sat in my car in disbelief," wrote Murillo, who had worked at Tesla since 2019.

Tesla Woes

Another Tesla employee in the comments had a similar experience of sleeping at a company factory.

"I started as a production associate, and after putting in the work, learning different positions and skills in different departments across three different factories, sacrificing sleep and staying in my car in the parking lot, showering, heating up dinners in the microwave similar to you, I got a position as a HazWaste Tech," wrote Diego Jett. "The same day, I started that position, I got the email my position had been terminated."

Another former worker was laid off after they uprooted their entire family for the job. Ouch.

Mass layoffs happened at Tesla due to a downturn in global sales and profits, with CEO Elon Musk saying in a company memo it was needed due to "duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas."

The layoffs have been an overall mess for Tesla, which has had to cancel separation agreements for some former employees because they received incorrect severance packages.

There's no telling when the bleeding will stop for Tesla. But hopefully its former workers will land on their feet — and maybe with some work-life balance this time.

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