Wow, that really IS pathetic. (Thanks to Patton Oswalt and all the other brave people who’ve remained on X. I wasn’t up to it, myself, but I admire those with the intestinal fortitude to stay and document Musk’s goings-on.)
I bet they’re kicking themselves for not just modifying his metrics with a multiplier.
They did. It just wasn’t enough.
Mr. Free Speech Absolutist strikes again.
Btw the dossier is on Klippenstein’s substack. If you browse the very long table of contents that’ll give you the idea.
Musk is going to crash face first into German employment law.
But, but…Patton will get blocked now! 
If Musk is overworking people they probably are actually sick, it’s called extreme fatigue and it’s a real medical issue. You can’t do that shit to people and expect them to be healthy. What a complete ass.
Employees are a business expense. Their health is not management’s concern. The most value possible must be extracted from them for the least possible outlay. This is also the MO of the Bezos operation. Muck may be a bag of turds, but he is not significantly different from other business leaders.
Surely there has to be some balance even in pure economics, as there is a cost to constantly replace workers.
Until he’s literally breaking the law by harassing employees at home.
And when you’re causing three times as many employees to be sick than the average, you are being significantly different than other business leaders.
This might be some useful information for context. I don’t live in Germany, I live in Luxembourg which borders Germany, but I suspect the laws are similar.
Sick leave here works very differently compared to the US. In the US, it’s an employer benefit. The employer chooses how to implement the paid-time-off program almost entirely on the basis of market pressures (competitive posture for employee recruitment, its own bottom line, etc.). There is no federal law establishing any practices or minimums for sick leave. Some companies are subject to FMLA, but that’s unpaid time off, and it doesn’t apply to everyone. In any event, when you call in sick in the US, as long as your company supports it and you have time to use, the company pays you for that sick day.
Here, when you call in sick, the state pays your salary for that day. The employer is not responsible for it. They do still issue your paycheck, but financially, as far as they’re concerned, it’s a free day. They report it to the relevant ministry, and then, on the basis of the report, the state reimburses the employer for your sick day. In order for this to work, there is an expectation that you call the doctor and get a diagnosis, and there’s a form the doctor gives you which you file with the ministry to mirror your employer’s report. You don’t just call in sick for a mental health break; you are expected to prove it medically.
(This may seem more restrictive than the US equivalent, but it’s balanced by two factors: First, there’s no effective maximum number of sick days. If your doctor is willing to sign off, you can call in sick dozens of times per year. And also, vacation time is much more generous here; I get 44 days of holiday annually. So it doesn’t feel restrictive at all. Sick time is sick time.)
Now, because it’s a state program, paid with public funds, there are oversight requirements. One of the rules is that if you’re sick enough to stay home from work, you are supposed to stay home. You shouldn’t be out clothes shopping, or going to the movies, or whatever. There are exceptions for brief outings, to pick up food or prescriptions and such, but overall, you’re sick, and you require rest. And, yes, this is checked — by the state agency. They may come and knock on your door, and if you’re not home like you’re supposed to be, your sick time may be unapproved.
By the time this happens administratively, you’ll probably already have your paycheck, so you will be obligated to refund that day of pay — to the state. Not to the employer. As far as the employer is concerned, the books are balanced. They don’t have to pay back the reimbursement. You do. Which means the employer has no incentive for knocking on your door. Sick leave is a reality of work life, and as long as it’s medically justified, the employer simply accepts it. By law, they aren’t allowed to nag you about it, but financially, in terms of your paycheck, they have no reason to. Operationally, it may be challenging to deal with your absence, but the culture here is that if the company can’t accommodate employee leave time, that’s an employer problem, not an employee problem.
So when Musk tasks his management to go verify that sick workers are actually sick … that’s a wild transgression of the local labor culture. I’m amazed the managers actually went along with it.
Musk is still beating his head against the union action in Sweden. If he picks a fight with German workers, because he doesn’t understand the laws and culture and is inappropriately bringing his own oligarch-libertarian mindset to the table, he’s going to be in a world of hurt.
Good info, thank you.
At this point the T on a Tesla has to stand for Trump supporter. Anyone who buys one these days has to know their money is being spent on stuff like this.
True, but as of fairly recently, many states are implementing mandatory minimum sick leave requirements…
Private employers in more than a dozen states, plus two dozen municipalities across the U.S., are required to provide some form of paid sick leave to an eligible employee.
No kidding. Quote from the article:
In January, Musk warned Tesla workers to prepare for a ramped-up workload as he previewed plans for a mass-market EV.
“We really need the engineers to be living on the line,” the billionaire told investors on an earnings call. “We’ll be sleeping on the line, practically. Not practically, we will be.”
A former worker at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, told The Verge that employees would sleep on the floor after 12-hour shifts.]
Thanks for that link to Xitter’s boss’s xit. I just posted (xhat?) this in response:
Is your mind permanently in Opposite Day? Trump tried to overthrow our legislature because he lost the 2020 election AND he has promised to be a dictator.
When apartheid comes to America, it will be wearing a girdle, lifts and hair plugs.
The law in Germany is in fact much different from the situation in Luxembourg as per Cervaise’s post:
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For the first six weeks (per year and diagnosis) a German employer pays the regular wage. The employee must furnish a doctor’s certificate (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung). It is colloquially still called ‘the yellow note’ but in fact for people in statutory insurance it is transmitted electronically from doctor to insurance to employer. The dataset for the insurance has the diagnosis (as ICD code) but the employer only gets beginning and end date of the employee being unable to work. It is also considered very much not the done thing for the employer to ask about the nature of the illness (I do not know about the legal situation wrt this).
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Employers can choose to forego the requirement for a doctor’s certificate for short illnesses, and many do so for absences for one or two days.
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Small employers of up to 30 employees are enrolled in a statutory insurance scheme (U1-Umlage) which reimburses them most of the wages. For larger employers Entgeltfortzahlung is a direct expense. In 2021 the cost for all German employers was about € 78 billion.
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For illnesses of more than six weeks (per year, for one diagnosis) the employer stops pay after the six weeks are elapsed, and a lower benefit (Krankengeld) paid by health insurance kicks in.
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For days where the employee is healthy but must care for a sick child the provisions are similar (doctor’s certificate) but the child sick days are capped to 15 days per parent per child (30 days for single parents)
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There is certainly a potential for malingering, and many larger companies have provisions for a formal interview between supervisor + HR and employee after returning from a long illness. That interview ostensively covers the question “What can we do for your work environment so it is better for your health?”, but of course it is also exerting some informal pressure. The company’s procedure for such a Krankenrückkehrergespräch is mitbestimmungspflichtig, i.e. it must be cleared with the elected works council if one exists - which by statute is mandatory for large employers.
Thanks for the clarification. Indeed quite different from Lux.
Musk is still doing it wrong, of course.