{"id":15207,"date":"2026-08-22T05:54:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=15207"},"modified":"2026-08-22T05:54:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:54:48","slug":"in-2018-elon-musk-sent-every-tesla-employee-a-memo-that-took-authority-away-from-their-managers-and-handed-it-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=15207","title":{"rendered":"In 2018, Elon Musk sent every Tesla employee a memo that took authority away from their managers and handed it to \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133418102,imgsize-13412,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/elon-musk.jpg\" alt=\"In 2018, Elon Musk sent every Tesla employee a memo that took authority away from their managers and handed it to \u2026\" title=\"Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees in 2018\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees in 2018\">Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees in 2018<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/elon-musk\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk<\/a> laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees, urging them to cut unnecessary meetings, avoid complicated jargon and communicate directly. In an April 17, 2018 email to Tesla staff, Elon Musk argued that employees should not waste time sitting in meetings where they add no value.<!-- --> He also warned managers against forcing communication through a strict chain of command. The email has surfaced after an X user shared it in an X (formerly Twitter) post to which Musk replied in an affirmative yes.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>In the email, CEO Elon Musk called excessive meetings \u201cthe blight of big companies\u201d and said large meetings should be removed unless they clearly provide value to everyone attending. He also advised employees to leave meetings or calls as soon as it becomes clear they are not contributing. <!-- -->\u201cIt is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time,\u201d Musk wrote.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Here\u2019s the memo Elon Musk sent to Tesla employees<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Btw, here are a few productivity recommendations:<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>\u2022 Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get rid of all large meetings, unless you&#8217;re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>\u2022 Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>\u2022 Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren&#8217;t adding value.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>\u2022 Don&#8217;t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesia. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don&#8217;t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>\u2022 Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the &#8220;chain of command.&#8221; Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>\u2022 A major source of issues is poor communication between departments. The way to solve this is to allow the free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between departments, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen.<!-- --> It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/>\u2022 In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a &#8220;company rule&#8221; is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/>If there is something you think should be done to make Tesla execute better or allow you to look forward to coming to work more (same thing in the long term), please send a note to (redacted).<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>Thanks for being such a kickass team and accomplishing miracles every day. It matters. We are burning the midnight oil to burn the midnight oil.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>Elon&#8221;<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/technology\/tech-news\/in-2018-elon-musk-sent-every-tesla-employee-a-memo-that-took-authority-away-from-their-managers-and-handed-it-to-\/articleshow\/133418071.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees in 2018 Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees, urging them to cut unnecessary meetings, avoid complicated jargon and communicate directly. In an April 17, 2018 email to Tesla staff, Elon Musk argued that employees should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees in 2018 Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees, urging them to cut unnecessary meetings, avoid complicated jargon and communicate directly. In an April 17, 2018 email to Tesla staff, Elon Musk argued that employees should [&hellip;]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":1,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":3,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg",400,225,false],"medium":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg",300,169,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787378088_elon-musk.jpg",150,84,false]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/author\/admin"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link category-link-31\">\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}