Some changes were expected. On May 14, Musk sent a letter to employees (paywall) saying he was “flattening the management structure to improve communication, combining functions where sensible and trimming activities that are not vital to the success of our mission.” Musk had also promised to slash the number of contractors at Tesla, which he had compared to “barnacles.”

Musk said Tesla would offer laid-off employees stock vesting based on their length of employment. Tesla’s stock price remained mostly unchanged for the day.

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