Emily Brown
A man who worked at Tesla for four years has spilled the beans on what Elon Musk would do when employees weren't meeting his standards.
As controversial as some of Musk's opinions may be, the 52-year-old has enough successful companies to prove that he's pretty clued-up when it comes to the world of business.
You don't become the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX without making some smart and ruthless choices, and former employee Carl Medlock got to watch Musk's techniques unfold as he worked as a territory manager for Tesla from 2009 to 2013.
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After he left Tesla, Medlock appeared on The Iced Coffee Hour podcast to discuss his time at the electric car company and he made an interesting revelation about what the Tesla boss usually did if you were close to being fired.
According to the former employee, you might know you're in danger if Musk begins paying extra close attention to you.
Medlock explained: "If Elon is micromanaging you, you're probably on you way out because he hires good people [and] lets them do their thing."
Medlock went on to insist that it was 'fun' working for Musk, but he said the businessman didn't socialise with his workers.
He continued: "He would talk to you if he needed to talk to you, but he didn't just go BS with people at all."
When asked if Musk would ever joke around with the staff at work, Medlock responded: "I never saw it."
Maybe he's just trying to save all of his best quips for a bigger audience on X?
Though Musk might not have been the most personable boss, Medlock made clear that the staff had profound respect for him.
Offering one example of this feeling, he said: "One of the respectful things that everybody at Tesla did without even saying it, when he was with kids, nobody disrespected him – nobody went over there and talked to him."
Medlock ended up losing his job at Tesla after four years after an incident in which he allegedly attempted to help a woman in Hawaii whose Tesla was 'all scratched up'.
"An email came to me from somebody way high up at Tesla and said fix the problem," he claimed. "My boss said 'I don't care what he says, you're not going to Hawaii for more than $500'.
"I said 'we need to take care of this lady, she's in her third year of owning this car and she still has not been able to drive it because it is so scratched up'."
Medlock claimed he got the go-ahead so shipped all the products, like buffer and polisher, to the customer while his son travelled to fix the car.
However, his boss was not happy and 'told HR that the trip was not authorized', leading to the end of Medlock's time at the company.