A leaked recording of a new Tesla training program reveals that the company is concerned about a growing employee morale issue.

Last year, we noted that, following a mass wave of layoffs that was poorly handled on many levels, Tesla has been facing significant employee morale issues.

A year later, it looks like these are ongoing and Tesla is trying to address them.

Last week, Tesla had a week-long production shutdown at Gigafactory Texas and employees were offered to come in for some training during that time.

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One of the training sessions was related to “company culture,” and Business Insider obtained a recording, releasing some quotes from it.

The instructor asked Tesla employees attending the training if they’d ever felt “I can’t work under these conditions”or had felt set back by constant change at the company.” “I know I have,” the instructor told the employees.

The recording made it clear that Tesla is having some turnover issues due to morale. The instructor said:

“A lot of people leave this company, and they have kind of a negative taste in their mouth. They think: ‘Man, it was terrible. It was bad. I got burnt out. I feel like I didn’t get anything done, nobody listened to me.’”

The company culture training reportedly used to be for Tesla management, but the instructor said that the company decided to expand it to all employees.

They added:

“Leadership has kind of another level of responsibility for trying to guide and direct that culture. But at the end of the day, it’s us as the people on the ground that are the reflection of the culture.”

The instructor highlighted the need for employees to focus on Tesla’s “higher purpose.”

Tesla greatly benefited from being a mission-driven company with the aim. of accelerating the transition to electric transport and sustainable energy.

It helped with hiring and in pushing Tesla’s well-known aggressive work rate.

However, Tesla’s mission shifted in the last few years as CEO Elon Musk had Tesla focus on autonomous driving, and many people feel that the original mission has taken a step back with the CEO backing Donald Trump and the Republican party, who have historically campaigned against electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Electrek’s Take

Company culture begins at the top and flows down. Musk has historically asked a lot out of Tesla employees, but he has barely been working at Tesla for the past year.

That’s not outstanding leadership.

Furthermore, he alienated most of Tesla’s customer base, and while he still has loyalists at Tesla, I think that his massive drop in favorability is also reflected among Tesla employees.

I think talent retention should be one of the biggest concerns at Tesla right now.

I track employee comings and goings closely and I see a continued exodus of talent right now that doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Employee morale is part of it.

The third of a quintet of West Virginia solar farms just came online, and while that’s a renewable milestone, there’s a disappointing hitch.

3 out of 5 West Virginia solar farms are online

FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison have launched a 5.75 megawatt (MW), 17,000-panel solar farm at Marlowe in Berkeley County. The new solar farm sits on about 36 acres of land along I-81 and the Potomac River – land that used to store ash from the retired R. Paul Smith Power Station.

In 2022, FirstEnergy wrapped up a major cleanup effort, pulling more than 3 million tons of ash from the site to be reused in cement manufacturing. With the landfill officially closed, the company cleared the way to turn the former waste site into a clean energy generator as part of its solar program. Fifty-four local union workers constructed the solar farm, which features US-made solar panels, a racking system, and electrical equipment.

It’s the third of Mon Power and Potomac Edison’s five solar farms that will generate up to 50 MW of clean energy combined. The companies completed their first solar farm at Fort Martin Power Station (18.9 MW) in early 2024, and their Rivesville solar site (5.5 MW) came online last fall. In total, the companies now have 30 MW of solar capacity.

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Electrek’s Take

Combined, the five projects will create more than 87,000 Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) available for purchase by customers for 4 cents per kilowatt hour in addition to normal rates. Aside from the essential benefit of cutting carbon emissions, there isn’t anything else in it for customers, apart from spending, on average, an extra $40 or so a month out of the goodness of your heart to go solar. Heck, you don’t even get a T-shirt.

Mon Power and Potomac Edison – why are customers being charged MORE to buy into solar in West Virginia? That’s a stick, not a carrot. (And WV? Coal’s not coming back. It doesn’t matter what Trump says.)

But solar growth anywhere is something to be cheerful about, and solar energy in coal-state West Virginia is progressing. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, as of Q4 2024, 205 MW of solar is installed in West Virginia. So, it’s no surprise that it’s at the bottom – it’s ranked 49th in the US for the amount of solar installed. However, it’s projected to reach 40th place over the next five years with 1,064 MW, so at least it’s expected to improve.

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