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Have to say goodbye:
Tesla CEO
Elon Musk
loses his HR
manager Valerie Capers Workman
Photo: MICHELE TANTUSSI / REUTERS
With
Valerie Capers Workman
, the US electric car manufacturer Tesla loses one of the highest-ranking and most externally visible managers. The HR manager, who had previously reported directly to Tesla boss
Elon Musk
(50), is leaving the group and, according to the Bloomberg news agency, is hiring as Chief Legal Officer at the US HR consultancy Handshake.
The lawyer joined the carmaker's compliance team in 2018 and then quickly rose. As of July 2020, Workman was the senior human resources officer as Vice President. During her term of office there were several sensational discrimination processes, in the context of which the black woman made clear statements about problems of racism in the USA. The Group's first diversity report was also published during her tenure. She also defended Musk's controversial corona strategy.
As usual, Tesla did not comment on the change.
However, the end of Workman's tenure was already noted on her LinkedIn profile.
In an email to Bloomberg, she confirmed the change and especially thanked her direct colleagues.
She believes she is handing the baton at Tesla in a better position than she received it herself.
With Workman, Musk has once again lost a high-ranking employee.
The situation had calmed down somewhat after a wave of disposals between 2018 and 2020 and the stock market success of the electric car manufacturer.
But the time spent in the top positions in the group obviously remains short.
In the past few years, Tesla has repeatedly faced lawsuits from People of Color. It was only in October that a court sentenced Tesla to a $ 137 million payment; the company is taking action. Workman had been following the process closely and said he was in court every day of the trial. Tesla is now a different company than at the time of the fall in 2015 and 2016, Workman wrote to the workforce after the verdict. According to the Diversity Report, 10 percent of US employees are people of color, but only 4 percent are in management.
She also defended the company during the pandemic.
After Musk defied local guidelines in the corona crisis and left the factory in Freemont open, Workman justified the action.
The image of the group had been misrepresented, she said at a hearing.
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