Elon Musk informed Tesla employees that he wants to approve each new hire at the company, but this could prove to be a challenging task. Based on calculations, it could take Musk anywhere from two to almost 21 days of continuous work to approve new hires if Tesla maintains its recent hiring rate. Here's the breakdown: Tesla had nearly 130,000 employees in 2022 and received approximately 3.6 million applications that year. Over the past three years the increased its workforce by around 30,000 annually.
If Tesla continues this hiring trend, Musk could face hundreds of additional work hours. For instance, if he spent just one minute average person takes about 1.7 minutes to read one page) reviewing each new hire (Tesla hired about 30,000 people last year), it would total 500 hours or nearly 21 days of non-stop work without sleep. If he restricted email approvals to 12-hour shifts daily, that number would rise to almost 42 workdays. If Musk decided on each hire in just 5 seconds, it would still take him nearly 42 consecutive hours or almost two full days of work.
Musk's new hiring process could potentially slow down or even freeze hiring at Tesla. In an email sent on Monday, he urged executives to be cautious when sending him requests for approval. He instructed them to provide a list of candidates once a week, stating that no one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, without his email approval.
Three current Tesla employees mentioned that Musk has been involved in the hiring process before, though he seemed to have relaxed his stance on the issue over time. One employee expressed concern that the new process could make Tesla's already lengthy hiring process for engineers even worse, potentially causing the company to miss out on good candidates.
Even if Tesla were to increase its headcount by only 15,000 this year, Musk would still face around 250 hours of additional work, not including hires to address annual turnover. However, Musk, known for his intense work ethic, may be able to handle the extra hours, as he has done similar things at his other companies.
Musk's recent email appears to indicate his increased involvement in Tesla following the appointment of a new CEO for Twitter. Analyst Dan Ives believes that this change will allow Musk to focus more on his "golden child" companies. Musk and a Tesla spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment before publication.