- Tesla’s stock is down 44% year-to-date amid sales woes and CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in DOGE.
- Inside Tesla, however, workers say they’re unbothered by the carmaker’s stock price.
- “It feels like we’re in a storm right now, but I’m personally very confident in the company,” one said.
Tesla’s stock is tanking over fears of slowing sales, increasing competition, and a CEO who’s busy spending his time in Washington, DC. So far, 2025 looks like the electric vehicle company’s annus horribilis.
You wouldn’t know it from talking to employees.
The plummeting stock performance is “only concerning if you’re a short-term investor,” one Tesla worker in the company’s sales department said. “It feels like we’re in a storm right now, but I’m personally very confident in the company.”
Business Insider spoke with 10 Tesla employees across different roles and locations in recent days. All but one — a worker who left this year — are still with the company, and nine own Tesla stock. They spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to avoid professional reprisal. The conversations shed light on how some inside the company are weathering the recent abysmal stock performance.
The general sentiment? Shrug.
Several pointed to the fact that the company's stock is up about 30% from this time last year. Over the last five years, it has spiked over 800%.
Four workers said they actively avoid looking at the share price. "If you're looking everyday, you're going to drive yourself crazy," one Texas-based employee said. There are many variables that could impact its market performance, the employee added — namely the dealings of CEO Elon Musk — that are out of employees' control.
In an informal company forum where some employees discuss the stock performance, the attitude appears to be similar. Workers haven't been posting anything out of the ordinary, five employees said; the channel, which has a few thousand users, is often used to share tweets and news stories about Tesla.
One worker based in Nevada said the internal atmosphere was far from "depressing" or "alarming."
A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Historically, stock grants have played a large role in Tesla compensation, and some workers have seen it as one of the company's most attractive features. Musk said in 2023 that the company has made people working Tesla's factory line millionaires.
"There's definitely some people who want to work at Tesla because they think they'll get rich fast on the stock, but those people don't last long," the former worker said.
Two other workers said the stock's volatility has nudged them toward long-term cash options, which allow employees to receive cash awards that are typically paid out over a period of four years.
In general, Tesla offers lower base salaries than its tech and automotive peers, but provides the opportunity for substantial stock grants, according to a 2021 internal pay sheet.
In 2024, Tesla granted workers an estimated $2.69 billion in restricted stock units and about $3.5 billion in stock options, according to its annual report, which breaks down the number of RSUs and options granted as well as the average value.
Two workers said they felt Tesla's share price was the least of workers' concerns. The carmaker has faced an onslaught of protests over Musk's association with Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.
In February, The New York Times reported that Tesla manager Jared Ottoman had been terminated after he criticized one of Musk's social media posts that referenced Nazi leaders.
"How often do you think about your CEO?" one engineer, who said they had grown frustrated with questions about Musk, said. "Do you hold yourself personally responsible for their behavior?"
Still, eight workers said they felt generally optimistic about the future of the company.
"It's an old story," one manager said. "Elon has always been in this controversial space, but if the product is good enough people are going to buy it anyway."
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