This to me is the more damning stuff from the article
Employees knew about such rampages. Sometimes Musk would terminate people; other times he would simply intimidate them. One manager had a name for these outburstsElons rage firingsand had forbidden subordinates from walking too close to Musks desk at the Gigafactory out of concern that a chance encounter, an unexpected question answered incorrectly, might endanger a career.
After Musk had patrolled the factory floor for a while, executives pulled him into a conference room. I think we can fix this, one of his top lieutenants, Jon McNeill, told him, according to someone who heard the conversation. McNeill tried to calm Musk down, and repeated a proverb he had once heard: No man comes up with a good idea when being chased by a tiger. At that moment, Musk was the tiger. (A spokesperson for McNeill said he did not want to participate in this story.)
Musk, though, had other concerns. Whats that smell? he asked. Everyone went silent. They knew Musk was so sensitive to odors that job candidates were told not to wear cologne or perfume when they met him. They had seen him become upset over small issues like this, had observed him attack executives for their incompetence and inabilities. One person explained that there were vats of liquid silicon nearby. When heated, it sometimes smelled like burning plastic.
These vapors were going to kill people, Musk said. They were going to kill him. ... If it has been strange to watch Musks wild ride via news reports and social media, its been even weirder inside the company. Over the past six months Ive communicated with dozens of current and former Tesla employees, from nearly every division. They describe a thrilling and tumultuous workplace, where talented engineers and designers have done some of their proudest work but where, as one former executive put it, everyone in Tesla is in an abusive relationship with Elon. Almost all these employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because of nondisclosure agreements or fears of being sued or fired by Musk. (Even those with positive things to say asked for anonymity.) Most wanted the best for Tesla and said the recent profit report made them hopeful that the company is finally climbing onto firmer ground.
But experience gives them pause. A large number of high- ranking executives have left in the past two years, and Tesla has stumbled over basic tasks like delivering its cars. Working at the firm has been an agony and ecstasy, some saysometimes toggling between both extremes in a single day. ... But sometimes his impatience would turn into tirades. We called it the idiot bit, a senior engineering executive told me. If you said something wrong or made one mistake or rubbed him the wrong way, he would decide youre an idiot and there was nothing that could change his mind. Musk would openly deride employees in meetings, according to numerous sources, insulting their competence, bullying those who had failed to perform, demoting people on the spot. Musk could afford to fire, because a long list of qualified people wanted to work at Tesla. Its one of the few companies that is genuinely changing the world, a former executive said. And everyone was so smart. ... Over the next few weeks, executives kept arguing with Musk. A steady stream of engineers began giving notice. And a troubling trend emerged, according to former executives: If someone raised concerns or objections, Musk would sometimes pull the persons manager aside and order that the offender be reassigned, or potentially terminated, or no longer invited to meetings. Some executives began excluding skeptics out of self-preservation. If you were the kind of person who was likely to push back, you got disinvited, because VPs didnt want anyone pissing off Elon, one former executive who reported to Musk told me. People were scared that someone would question something.