Elon Musk is reportedly considering laying off 10% of Tesla employees and freezing hiring in the wake of the stalled Twitter deal, as well as global macroeconomic concerns such as chip shortages, rising inflation, and high-interest rates. 

According to a Reuters report on Friday, Musk wrote Tesla executives, informing them that the electric carmaker had to halt hiring globally and slash its employment by approximately 10%.

Tesla employs almost 1 lakh people worldwide, and Musk says he’s decreasing the workforce because of his “very negative feeling” about the economy. 

Tesla let off hundreds of employees in October 2017, around 9% of its workforce in June 2018, and roughly 7% in January 2019. 

In April 2020, it also reduced salaries and furloughed employees. 

Due to Covid-19 lockdowns, Tesla’s China gigafactory has been forced to shut down. 

Musk is also experiencing a “crypto winter,” with the value of his favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, plummeting by over 60% in the previous six months.

Musk handed Tesla staff an ultimatum earlier this week, telling them to either return to work or leave, saying that if they disagreed with the company’s policies, they should “pretend to work somewhere else.” 

He issued a series of letters to staff, warning them that if they did not return to work, they would be fired. 

“If you want to work remotely, you must be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week (and I mean *minimum*). This is significantly less than what we expect of factory workers “According to Electrek, Musk wrote.

“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” he added, taking a hard stance on returning to the office.

Despite supply chain issues and a factory closure in China, Tesla made a $3.3 billion profit in the first quarter of this year, with revenue of $18.7 billion. 

Tesla produced more than 305,000 vehicles and delivered more than 310,000 in the first quarter.

(Reports from IANS)