"Woke" is a luxury good - Sorry

Quote:

---

Tesla has laid off both the president of its LGBTQ+ community and a lead involved in diversity and inclusivity programs at the company.

While they were let go as part of a broader wave of layoffs, it comes amid several comments Tesla CEO Elon Musk made, concerning what he describes as the "woke mind virus."

Earlier this month, we reported on Musk telling Tesla executives in an email that they need to cut 10% of the workforce and pause hiring due to having a "super-bad feeling" about the economy.

Later, the CEO decided to clarify the Tesla layoffs in an email to all employees. He claimed that the 10% reduction would be for "salaried headcount" due to Tesla becoming overstaffed following a long growth phase.

Tesla ramped up the layoffs last week, and we reported that unlike what Musk said, they did include hourly employees.

Now we learn that many employees involved in diversity and inclusivity programs were part of the layoffs including the president of Tesla's LGBTQ+ community and a lead involved in diversity and inclusivity programs at the company.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Bobby Berretta-Paris, a five-year Tesla veteran, was let go last week. He was hired as a recruiter and promoted three times during his tenure. He was also the volunteer president of LGBTQ+ at Tesla.

Sources also told Electrek about a software engineer that was also let go by Tesla last week. They had been working at Tesla for four years most recently as senior software engineer in charge of naming conventions in Tesla's vehicle UI team and had been promoted three times. The software engineer volunteered as a diversity and inclusion leader and was involved in employee protection when it came to issues of diversity and inclusion. (Update: we removed their name.)

Berretta-Paris and the software engineer involved in the diversity and inclusion program didn't respond to a request for comment.

The layoffs of those diversity leaders at Tesla come amid CEO Elon Musk making several comments about what he calls "the woke mind virus," which he believes is "destroying civilization."

---

https://electrek.co/2022/06/20/tesla-lay-off-head-lgbtq-diversity-elon-musk-woke-mind-virus/

Good

Pretty simple question during a round of layoffs.



President of diversity and inclusion would be the first to go even if my company is not overstaffed.

Elon is learning that you cannot cater to these folks. They drive up costs, demand hiring of unqualified employees based on race or sexual orientation, and create less revenue. Its pretty funny that anyone bought into this but here we are.

LOL. What passes for news is a complete joke. First of all, people get laid off all the time including gay people so there's nothing newsworthy about that.

Second, since the article is being passed off as news, it should include a disclaimer that it is laced with the writer's supposition and innuendo. By that I mean trying to connect Musk's statements on wokeness to the layoff of a gay staff member. By all accounts, these guys were laid off per Musk's statements that he was going to lay people off due to economic downturn. Its the writer's opinion that there was an ulterior motive specifically with these two.

This kind of "journalism" is rampant today and why there is a massive trustworthiness problem with the media.

4stringAg said:

---

LOL. What passes for news is a complete joke. First of all, people get laid off all the time including gay people so there's nothing newsworthy about that.

Second, since the article is being passed off as news, it should include a disclaimer that it is laced with the writer's supposition and innuendo. By that I mean trying to connect Musk's statements on wokeness to the layoff of a gay staff member. By all accounts, these guys were laid off per Musk's statements that he was going to lay people off due to economic downturn. Its the writer's opinion that there was an ulterior motive specifically with these two.

This kind of "journalism" is rampant today and why there is a massive trustworthiness problem with the media.

---

This is a very niche source…

Well, god forbid you fire a gay.

The beautiful irony is that if Trump was president, gasoline, groceries and inflation would still be low, our economy would still be rocking and Tesla wouldn't be laying off employees.

Anastasia Beaverhaven said:

---

Elon is learning that you cannot cater to these folks. They drive up costs, demand hiring of unqualified employees based on race or sexual orientation, and create less revenue. Its pretty funny that anyone bought into this but here we are.

---

In addition to my earlier comment, the fact that CEOs (typically the most educated) bought into this and are now reversing course, should be a warning sign to everyone. These folks are not as intelligent as you think.

I see a Tesla in my future....Dude is scoring points with me.

I've said it before but ill say it again. It is not that execitives aren't intelligent. It is that the public company executive path is one that requires perfect pragmatism that costs one their principles. Once they become a leader they lead like a pragmatist; which is not a leadership trait but a follower. So we are stuck with followers with authority. It is embarrassing for them.

These pragmatist leaders use their intelligence to contort logical twists that justify their lack of risk taking. They will go to great lengths to complicate a simple problem if it makes their life easier.

The gay dude will file a lawsuit, protected class.

Very true. I strongly doubt these people were fired for what they do in their private bedrooms with consenting adults. Profits/growth are hard to come by these days, so unproductive/non contributors should be up on the chopping block first.

Hopefully the company makes an in kind contribution to a group that supports adults recovering from adolescent mistakes about gender transitions/HRT etc. to make sure the PR stays positive though.

One of the guys was a recruiter initially, promoted… to what? Recruiting involves hiring. Tesla is having a layoff and presumably a hiring freeze, or slow down at least. Roles like recruiting aren't needed right now. That's really no surprise that recruiters are getting cut.

Also, senior people likely with higher salaries, also not a surprise.

Smart move to layoff a "diversity lead"

Dumb move to have one to begin with

So they're back at zero

Every organization should lay off all die staff and redirect the money to something useful.

woke mind virus is the best phrase i've heard in years.

Glad to see true equality...the misery of communist policies are shared by all....apparently acronyms are no insulation.

So some of the Wokeforce got the pink slip. Equality.

In fairness, roles like this aren't needed ever.

How the hell do they expect to build cars without their diversity program personnel???

texagbeliever said:

---

I've said it before but ill say it again. It is not that execitives aren't intelligent. It is that the public company executive path is one that requires perfect pragmatism that costs one their principles. Once they become a leader they lead like a pragmatist; which is not a leadership trait but a follower. So we are stuck with followers with authority. It is embarrassing for them.

These pragmatist leaders use their intelligence to contort logical twists that justify their lack of risk taking. They will go to great lengths to complicate a simple problem if it makes their life easier.

---

Absolutely true. Have lived and seen this first hand. Continue to see it second hand via wife.

Just listened to his Twitter townhall and when asked about "Inclusion and Diversity" importance he basically said, we just hire and promote whoever contributes most value. No BS about diversity hiring etc.

Honestly, it just sounds like that was more part of larger layoffs as it said, it not such a targeted deal but of course they're making it seem like that in the media.

Why were they both promoted almost every year at Tesla?

Do HR next.

Mayor West said:

---

Why were they both promoted almost every year at Tesla?

---

I would assume he wasn't as hands on as he is right now and was letting his leaders run the day to day. They were probably doing typical corporate things that corporations have been doing since #metoo and BLM.

Promoting the hell out of minorities and women to hit the DEI quotas and virtue signal.

Bobby was currently Internal Mobility Lead. Started as a recruiter. At a time of downsizing, either position would be a likely target for RIF.

Bobby's LinkedIn page

Promoted nearly annually? Yeah...gtfo.

Imagine having a job where you create absolutely nothing of value for the business, its stakeholders, or its customers.

The Collective said:

---

Imagine having a job where you create absolutely nothing of value for the business, its stakeholders, or its customers.

---

There is a magical place in the US where anyone can get a job like this. It's called Washington DC.