Yes, Tesla, Inc CEO Elon Musk smokes weed and, yes, a lot of senior officers have fled the electric car automaker since January.
But it was Musk's public display of smoking grass last Friday, which was captured on video and is now on YouTube, which re-ignited calls for Musk to step down or to at least appoint a joint CEO or COO to oversee Tesla's troubled car-making operations.
Musk's display caused Tesla to experience its worst day of trading since 2016 on Sept. 7 after Musk took a drag on a "blunt" (a mix of tobacco and cannabis) on a live podcast, and news his chief accountant quit because he felt he couldn't handle too much bad publicity. Shares in Tesla fell 10 percent on Friday after incredulous investors took in the implications of both events.
Musk has been under intense pressure of late, and not only because of problems meeting delayed production quotas on his Tesla Model 3 all-electric sedan. Musk is also beset by a series of incidents both job and non-job related.
Musk is under close scrutiny for potential stock manipulation; is facing legal action from a short seller and potential lawsuit from a British cave rescuer in Thailand he, again and again, called a "child rapist."
"We have been calling for a Co-CEO or COO to assist to codifying the leadership structure and in so doing, the culture at Tesla," said James Albertine, an analyst at brokerage Consumer Edge. We think this is further evidence the time is now for Tesla management and the board to address these issues.
In addition, there's this resurfaced issue of Tesla's losing far too many senior managers since the start of the year. A common thread for this exodus is unclear but investors worry it might be due to some deep-seated defects in the way Musk manages Tesla.
A total of 41 executives have left Tesla thus far in 2018. This astounding total comes to 58 if one were to include the last 12 months. Thirteen of these managers resigned in June when Tesla laid off at least nine percent of its workforce.
The latest top-level loss was Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton who resigned Sept. 7 citing intense public attention on the company. Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton resigned after about a month on the job, while Chief People Officer Gaby Toledano said she won't return after an extended leave.
Morton and Toledano are the latest top Tesla managers to depart in what is a turbulent year for Tesla. Tesla is fighting to overcome production delays, wildly gyrating stock prices and the wild antics of Musk, who seems more unpredictable than before.
