Tesla’s Tumble. The Highs and Lows of Hardcore Programming
Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
Elon Musk isn’t having the best week. Once car company Tesla seemed to have an unassailable lead in the electric vehicle market. Musk injected an existing business with ‘hardcore’ working practices.
“Even when you are hardcore you need to look over your shoulder to see who is hardcorer, and in this case, Tesla has been usurped by China’s BYD.
I can imagine that the Chinese company is ‘more hardcore’ than the US firm so if that’s what creates a winner, BYD will be the victors. It’s just a pity that this type of worker abuse doesn’t yield a reward. Let me prove it to you.”
Hardcore, you know the score
Tesla has been the leading hardcore car company, following Musk's fascination with poor working practices. Commentators have fawned over the ‘genius’.
We're compelled to ask with Tesla’s crown now in the hands of BYD, a company backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway: Was the hardcore approach worth it?
“I should couch these assertions in that some employees do like difficult work under pressure. But if you look at Revolut on GlassDoor you’ll see that it isn’t for everyone (they have a low score, as do Tesla to save you looking).”
Treating employees like rubbish for little reward
I know this is old news. However hardcore Tesla isn’t somewhere you want to work.
Here’s what you can ‘enjoy’ if you work for a hardcore company.
All-consuming work environment
Racist and sexist abuse
Sleep on the floor after upward of 12-hour-long shifts
Lack of health and safety guardrails
“Which might (might) have made sense when the company struggled for survival. It might make sense if Tesla were #1.
They aren’t either.
Despite a 20% rise in deliveries in the third quarter of 2023 and selling 1.8 million cars in the year, Tesla has fallen short of Musk’s ambitious target of 2 million sales. This just doesn’t make sense.”
Hardcore doesn’t work
The shortfall from Tesla’s performance and the intense internal pressure to meet unrealistic goals underscore the diminishing returns of hardcore programming.
Let’s take a look at software development's long hours and work culture.
Long hours are bad
Therefore, there is always pressure for people to work harder, longer hours. This is demonstrably a Bad Idea. Source
Overtime is bad
“The resulting stress and fatigue that overtime produces can affect cognitive performance such as attention, concentration, memory, and logic errors.” Source
Long hours damage you
Long working hours = lack of sleep = adverse effect on the physical and mental health of workers Source
Crunch affects the whole team
Overworking and crunch time in software development can cause wider effects on the entire team. When having to work excessively, employees’ morale will lower, driving disengagement in the workplace. Source
Alternatives to hardcode
Looking after people
Recruiting for attitude
Understanding people exist outside work
” I think we should aim to be hardcore people in a non-hardcore environment. The problem is, it is all fun for Elon Musk to be hardcore because he can ‘choose’ to be there hardcore or not.
His employees don’t get that opportunity, they’ll be fired if they don’t work hardcore.”
Conclusion
” I still do not like Elon Musk. That’s a thing.”