Tesla CEO Elon Musk Investigating High Absenteeism Rates At German Factory

by Chris Teague

Published: September 27th, 2024

tesla ceo elon musk investigating high absenteeism rates at german factory

In most large companies, rank-and-file employees may go their entire tenure without seeing the CEO in person or hearing from them directly. Tesla’s German workers near Berlin may get more of Elon Musk than they bargained for, however, as the controversial CEO recently said that he would personally look into the plant’s rising rates of absenteeism.

Musk took to X to say that he was “looking into it” after a user shared reporting on the subject from the German publication Handelsblatt. Tesla’s German factory has seen employee call-ins rise to 17 percent in August, more than three times the rate across the rest of the German auto industry.

Labor laws are stricter in Germany in favor of the worker, and some of Tesla’s tactics have rubbed employees the wrong way. Handelsblatt noted that managers have traveled to sick workers’ homes to investigate their statements, with one slamming the door shut and threatening to call the police.

Around 12,000 people work in the factory where Tesla builds the Model Y, and several have reported “extremely high workloads” and pressure from management on people who call out sick.

These sorts of revelations aren’t uncommon in Tesla’s North American facilities. Musk himself admitted to sleeping in the factory and spending every moment focused on production when the Model 3 ramped up, and many others have cited extreme workloads and extended hours as factors contributing to worker burnout.

[Images: Tesla, Shutterstock]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

More by Chris Teague

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7 of 55 comments

Billccm on Sep 27, 2024
Don't those guys get 27 holidays a year plus two weeks vacation? Protectionism at it's best.

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- Big Al from Oz on Sep 28, 2024
  Good on them! We have 20 days annual leave in Australia and 90 days long service leave every 10 years. A happy workforce is a productive workforce.
  
  1
- Big Al from Oz on Sep 28, 2024
  Billcm, just checked it out Germans only have 20 days annual leave per annum and public holidays, same as most developed countries.
  
  2
Colorado Wellington on Sep 29, 2024
A controversial CEO who controversially slept in the factory during a critical production ramp-up period looking personally and controversially into absenteeism.

1 Reply
- See 2 previous
- EBFlex on Sep 30, 2024
  To be clear, he isn't controversial at all.
  
  1
- VoGhost on Sep 30, 2024
  When did EB fall in love with Elon? Does Donald know?
  
  1
- EBFlex on Sep 30, 2024
  TrollGhost lying again
  
  Like

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