AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
- Tesla is furloughing up to half of its sales and delivery staff in the US, CNBC reported Friday.
- Earlier this week, the company furloughed most hourly workers and cut salaries.
- The company's response to the virus has left some employees feeling confused, scared, and frustrated.
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Tesla's furloughs, first announced on Tuesday, hit about 50% of its sales and delivery staff in the United States, according to CNBC's Lora Kolodny.
The company broke the news to small groups of staff, three unnamed employees tell the news site. Employees will be furloughed in accordance with seniority, not performance, they said, adding that all entry-level roles had been furloughed.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The company's furloughs comes as tens of millions of other workers, many in retail and food service, are similarly furloughed or laid off entirely. Some 17 million Americans, a record, have filed for unemployment benefits in recent weeks.
Tesla's downsizing began on Tuesday, when Valerie Workman, an HR and legal executive at Tesla, told employees in an email published by CNBC that some jobs would be affected as it continued to keep "only minimum critical operations running."
"While we are continuing to keep only minimum critical operations running, we expect to resume normal production at our US facilities on May 4, barring any significant changes," the email said. "Until that time, it is important we take action to ensure we remain on track to achieve our long-term plans."
According to the email, the company plans to begin implementing certain cost-cutting measures starting April 13. These measures include temporarily reducing pay for salaried employees and placing employees who cannot work from home and have not been designated "critical work onsite" on furlough.
"For US employees, these reductions are 30% for Vice Presidents and above, 20% for Directors and above, and 10% for everyone else," the email said regarding pay cuts, which are expected to remain in place until the end of the second quarter.
In March, as the coronavirus pandemic first started to affect Tesla's business and operations, multiple Tesla employees told Business Insider that the company's response to the virus left them confused, scared, and frustrated.
Rosie Perper contributed to this report.
