Tesla staff left playing 'Squid Game' amid Elon Musk's ongoing layoffs

• Tesla staff are living in limbo as Elon Musk's job cuts continue.
• The layoffs are likely to continue through at least June, Bloomberg reported.

Tesla staff are living in limbo amid Elon Musk's rolling job cuts.

Bloomberg reported Monday that the cuts are likely to continue through at least June, citing people familiar with the matter. The lingering threat of layoffs has left some Tesla workers on edge.

The report said coworkers had taken to joking about anxiety and insomnia, with one employee likening the atmosphere to the hit Netflix drama "Squid Game," where characters must fight for their lives while playing children's games.

Tesla representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Last month, Musk told Tesla staff that he planned to cut more than 10% of the electric-vehicle company's 140,000-strong workforce.

The billionaire had reportedly pushed for a 20% head-count reduction to match the company's quarterly vehicle-deliveries decline.

Tesla's delivery numbers slumped prior to the layoff announcement, falling below Wall Street's already pessimistic estimates.

Deliveries in the first quarter fell by a fifth compared to the previous quarter and by more than 8% versus the same period the previous year, marking the company's first year-on-year sales decline since 2020.

The layoff announcement came as Tesla has grappled with poor sales amid increased competition from Chinese automakers such as BYD.

The rolling layoffs have affected several of Tesla's key divisions, including wiping out almost all of the Supercharger team. Reuters reported that the team's decimation came after the division's chief refused to conduct further layoffs.

Musk has reportedly since backtracked on this decision and rehired some of those workers.

The CEO has also denied a Reuters report last month that Tesla was scrapping plans for a long-awaited $25,000 model in favor of prioritizing a robotaxi.

Tesla stock is down about 30% since the start of the year, valuing the automaker at just over $550 billion.