Photo: YouTube / Tobias Lindh
Being successful is akin to having a target on your back or, at least, that’s what they would say in the movies. In the real world, it means having to deal with the fact that your own employees might be out to sabotage you for profit.
Earlier this year, word got out that Tesla and the FBI, with help from a Tesla employee, had been able to prevent a $1 million ransomware attack. Today, internal memos obtained by Bloomberg say that another employee has been caught and ultimately fired for an attempted malicious act of sabotage.
The memo comes from Al Prescott, the Tesla VP of legal and acting general counsel, and undoubtedly serves to let the other members of staff know what transpired with the firing of just one individual. The incident occurred recently at the Freemont facility, in California.
“Two weeks ago, our IT and InfoSec teams determined that an employee had maliciously sabotaged a part of the Factory. Their quick actions prevented further damage and production was running smoothly again a few hours later,” Prescott writes.
Prescott explains that the employee tried to cover up his tracks and even place the blame on someone else, which ultimately resulted in his destroying a company computer. Confronted with “irrefutable” evidence, the employee admitted to his guilt and employment was terminated. Prescott doesn’t mention prosecution, which would be expected if this was really an act of sabotage in the legal sense.
“We place tremendous trust in our employees and value everyone’s contribution,” Prescott adds. “However, whatever the personal motivations of the attacker were, these are crimes, violations of our code of conduct, and are unfair to other employees.”
Bloomberg reached out to Tesla, CEO Elon Musk and Prescott for comment but, as you may have guessed, got none in response. Because Tesla no longer has a PR department and is not talking to the media anymore.
The memo comes from Al Prescott, the Tesla VP of legal and acting general counsel, and undoubtedly serves to let the other members of staff know what transpired with the firing of just one individual. The incident occurred recently at the Freemont facility, in California.
“Two weeks ago, our IT and InfoSec teams determined that an employee had maliciously sabotaged a part of the Factory. Their quick actions prevented further damage and production was running smoothly again a few hours later,” Prescott writes.
Prescott explains that the employee tried to cover up his tracks and even place the blame on someone else, which ultimately resulted in his destroying a company computer. Confronted with “irrefutable” evidence, the employee admitted to his guilt and employment was terminated. Prescott doesn’t mention prosecution, which would be expected if this was really an act of sabotage in the legal sense.
“We place tremendous trust in our employees and value everyone’s contribution,” Prescott adds. “However, whatever the personal motivations of the attacker were, these are crimes, violations of our code of conduct, and are unfair to other employees.”
Bloomberg reached out to Tesla, CEO Elon Musk and Prescott for comment but, as you may have guessed, got none in response. Because Tesla no longer has a PR department and is not talking to the media anymore.
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