Elon Musk’s Politics and Burnout Drive Senior Staff Exodus
▼ Summary
– Elon Musk’s companies have experienced significant senior-level departures due to his demanding management style and political activism.
– Key personnel have left Tesla’s sales, battery, AI, and robotics divisions, as well as its public affairs and technology leadership teams.
– Musk’s AI startup xAI saw rapid turnover, with its chief financial officer and general counsel departing within a week of each other.
– Current and former employees cited burnout, strategic disagreements, mass layoffs, and political differences as reasons for leaving.
– Musk’s “24/7 campaign-style work ethos” creates an environment where executives struggle to maintain work-life balance and long-term roles.
A significant number of senior executives have recently departed from Elon Musk’s various companies, with many citing the intense work culture and the billionaire’s increasingly public political stances as primary reasons for leaving. This trend highlights the challenges of maintaining leadership stability across a sprawling business empire that includes Tesla, SpaceX, and his newer ventures in artificial intelligence.
Tesla has seen key leaders exit from its US sales division, battery and power-train engineering groups, public policy team, and even its chief information officer. Core personnel from the critical Optimus robot and advanced AI development teams have also moved on, raising questions about the continuity of projects Musk has identified as vital for the company’s future.
The turnover appears even more pronounced at xAI, the artificial intelligence startup Musk founded just two years ago and later merged with his social media platform, X. Both the chief financial officer and the general counsel resigned abruptly after very short tenures, departing within a single week of each other. This rapid churn is part of a broader pattern affecting the conglomerate led by the world’s wealthiest individual, who simultaneously manages five major companies employing well over 140,000 people.
Interviews with numerous current and former staff members reveal a complex picture. While some long-serving employees left on good terms to launch their own startups or take planned career breaks, a growing number are resigning due to exhaustion from the demanding work environment. Others expressed disillusionment with Musk’s frequent strategic shifts, large-scale workforce reductions, and his vocal political activism.
One of Musk’s own advisers acknowledged the relentless pace, noting, “The one constant in Elon’s world is how quickly he burns through deputies. Even the board jokes, there’s time and then there’s ‘Tesla time.’ It’s a 24/7 campaign-style work ethos. Not everyone is cut out for that.”
The personal toll of this culture was starkly illustrated by Robert Keele, the former general counsel for xAI. After a 16-month stint, he marked his departure by sharing an AI-generated video depicting a lawyer in a suit screaming while shoveling molten coal. In a poignant comment, Keele wrote, “I love my two toddlers and I don’t get to see them enough.”
Another telling exit was that of Mike Liberatore, who served as xAI’s chief financial officer for a mere 102 days before leaving to join Musk’s rival, Sam Altman, at OpenAI. On his LinkedIn profile, Liberatore summarized his brief tenure: “7 days per week in the office; 120+ hours per week; I love working hard.” His move to a direct competitor underscores the competitive pressures and personal sacrifices involved in working at the highest levels of Musk’s organizations.
(Source: Ars Technica)
