Even a Tesla employee who was so dedicated to his job that he slept in his car and showered at the factory was not spared from mass layoffs at the EV company.
Nico Murillo, 29, was informed he was let go from his employer of five years without warning last month.
The production supervisor at Tesla’s Fremont, California factory received an email as he was on his way to work Monday morning stating that his position was “eliminated by restructuring,” Murillo said in a post on LinkedIn.
In disbelief, Murillo continued driving to the factory but when he arrived and tried to swipe his badge, it didn’t work and the security guard took it from him. His work account was also deactivated.
“I got my badge, went to the turnstile, and then it didn’t work, and it turned red and started beeping, and I was like, ‘is this real’?” he told KTVU.
Murillo is one of the approximate 14,000 employees Tesla has laid off since April — a shocking 10% of the company’s global workforce.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the cuts a “difficult decision” in an April 15 memo to all employees as the EV manufacturer grapples with falling sales.
Murillo started at Tesla in 2019 as a production associate and worked his way up to lead production associate and finally production supervisor.
He shared that he “sacrificed a lot for the company.”
During a period last year, Murillo was basically living out of his car in the factory’s parking lot during the week to avoid his one-and-a-half-hour commute to and from work each day.
He would microwave his dinner in the factory break room, shower at its facilities, and sleep in his car in the parking lot.
Despite the sacrifices and impersonal lay-off, Murillo is grateful for his time at Telsa, which did give him a severance package.
He drives a Tesla Model Y and proudly wears Tesla gear.
“I think Tesla really taught me how to overcome challenges really quick,” he told KTVU.
Murillo has already gotten a new job as the manager of a GNC store in Pleasanton and plans to put his house on the market to live on the road for a while, he told the local Fox affiliate station.
“My analogy — I play football — it’s like, things go wrong, the other team, they get the ball, and then you know, you just got to work with what you got,” Murillo said.
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