A former engineering technician at Tesla has revealed he quit his job after more than seven years with the company because he could no longer support CEO Elon Musk. Trae Cervantes told Business Insider that he worked at Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada from 2018 until March 2025.
His journey at the EV giant began as a production associate, drawn by the opportunity to improve his life after personal struggles. He quickly advanced through multiple roles, praising Tesla for offering him career growth and better pay without a formal education.
"I was drawn to Tesla because I needed a way to improve my situation," he told the publication. "Leading up to Tesla, I wasn't doing super well. I'd gone through a divorce, I got arrested for drinking and driving, and I was working two jobs to make ends meet. One of my best friends was working there and he told me to apply. When I got the job, I quit the two jobs and immediately got a better-paying role with more time off."
Cervantes described the physically demanding 12-hour shifts, compensated by ample time off, and the culture of showing initiative to advance.
But, a significant shift in his loyalty began to occur due to Elon Musk's increasingly controversial public actions. While there had always been a "cult of personality" around the Tesla CEO, Cervantes initially "believed in the mission."
"I remember when he smoked weed on the Joe Rogan Experience, seeing so many T-shirts referencing it at the Gigafactory. I'd thought some of the things he'd done were wrong, like the Thai diver incident, but I believed in the mission," he said.
The turning point came with Musk's deeper involvement in Twitter and politics, which Cervantes felt was "detracting from the company's mission."
The "giveaway for prospective voters" struck Cervantes as "morally wrong," prompting him to actively research Musk's history and the company's unfulfilled promises like full self-driving. The breaking point arrived with an incident where Musk appeared to make a "Nazi salute" leading Cervantes to feel "ashamed to tell people where I work."
Choosing to leave without a job lined up, Cervantes explained his decision to his supervisor: "I have to leave. I can't do this anymore. It's getting to a point where I feel like I'm compromising myself morally by walking through those doors every day." Despite the emotional difficulty of leaving a place that transformed his life, Cervantes asserted, "I didn't leave the place because of the company. I left because of the face of the company."
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