"Elon basically does what he wants, whenever he wants," the person who witnessed the apparent date told Business Insider. (Tesla disputes this was a date and said this was primarily a business dinner that the person was invited to).
And it might also be Tesla's biggest weakness. The scrappy, feel-good company, built in Musk's image, also bears many of his flaws — a place where long hours, chaos, callousness, and contradictions can grind workers down, many employees said.
All the people we spoke with are either currently employed by Tesla or have been in the past year. They've held a variety of jobs, from entry level to managers, in engineering, production, and sales, at the Fremont headquarters and factory, the "Gigafactory" in Nevada and other locations. Some requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, while others were authorized by Tesla and spoke with us in unmonitored, private conversations.
"People quit within the first two hours, people quit after a week," Galescu said. "There was one guy who was fresh out of high school, 18 years old, never had a job before and was excited to work: 'I want to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day!' By about the fifth day, he was on the floor crying." The guy quit soon after.
