Recent reports indicate that Elon Musk has taken drastic measures against a Tesla engineer who voiced concerns about the CEO’s conduct on social media.

As highlighted in our latest update, insiders at Tesla are beginning to openly criticize Musk for his increasingly erratic social media activity.

For instance, Musk recently labeled CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen’s family as a “crime family” in response to an erroneous claim linking Eisen’s daughter to financial support from USAID, pointing to confusion caused by a shared surname.

It appears that Musk and Tesla are actively discouraging staff from speaking out against such behavior. Advertisement – scroll for more content

The New York Times reports the termination of Jared Ottmann, a manager with Tesla’s battery thermal supplier industrialization engineering, following his complaints regarding Musk’s actions.

Having worked at Tesla for six years, Ottmann has been raising alarms about Musk’s social media use for the past three years, intensifying his concerns after Musk’s salutation at Donald Trump’s inauguration last month.

One particular tweet from Musk, which sparked controversy, did not prompt a clarification or apology regarding a perceived Nazi salute. Instead, Musk chose to criticize the media for suggesting such a connection, tweeting this:

In response to Musk’s post, Ottmann remarked:

This post by Tesla’s current CEO casually references genocidal figures, while amassing 308,000 likes.

Although Ottmann claims he received “personal support” when raising this issue internally, he noted a lack of official action from Tesla regarding Musk’s behavior:

Starting in 2022 and especially over the last week, I’ve consistently addressed this with managers, HR, legal compliance, and investor relations. While I’ve received considerable personal support, the company has remained mute.

Despite being promoted four times in his six years with the company, Ottmann is now unemployed.

Electrek’s Perspective

Musk often labels himself as a promoter of “free speech” and an opponent of “cancel culture.” However, he swiftly dismissed this engineer when confronted with dissent regarding his expression.

This situation is likely intended to intimidate other Tesla employees, dissuading them from voicing their opinions. It raises significant concerns regarding the company’s shifting culture; Tesla seems to prioritize allegiance to its CEO, whose behavior many deem troubling, over attracting top talent based on merit.