Tesla staff worked 100-hour weeks to build Model 3: Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon
Musk.
James Glover /
Reuters

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk says this has been one of
  the worst year’s he’s ever had. “This year felt like five years
  of aging, frankly. The worst year of my entire career,” he
  says.
• In
  a new interview with Recode, Musk says he was working
  120-hour weeks to get Tesla Model 3 production ramped
  up.
• Moreover, Musk says that “everyone” at Tesla was
  working 100-hour weeks.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is having a particularly hard year. 

“This year felt like five years of aging, frankly. The worst year
of my entire career,” Musk said
in a new interview with Recode’s Kara Swisher. 

There are a lot of reasons for that, but prime among them is the
absurd hours he puts in at Tesla: Upwards of 120 hours per week,
and an average of 100-hours per week throughout the year. 

“I haven’t counted exactly, but I would just sort of sleep for a
few hours, work, sleep for a few hours, work, seven days a week,”
he said. “Some of those must have been 120 hours, or
something nutty. You’re gonna go a little bonkers if you work 120
hours a week.”

A little bonkers, you say?

Elon Musk was interviewed
on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he smoked pot on
camera.
Joe Rogan
Experience/YouTube

For some context, working a 120-hour week is equivalent to
working 17 hours on average every day without any days off. Musk
would almost certainly have to sleep at the office for that to
happen — something
that he’s known for doing.

Read more:

Elon Musk says Apple doesn’t
really ‘blow people’s minds’ anymore

Beyond the CEO, though, Musk said that “everyone” at Tesla was
working 100-hour weeks in 2018 in an effort to ramp up production
of the company’s most recent car, the Model 3. Working 100
hours in a week is equivalent to 14 hours on average every day
without any days off. 

“There wasn’t some other way to do this,” Musk said. When pushed,
Musk reiterated: “There wasn’t some other way to do
this, Kara.”

That said, it sounds like those kind of hours have shrunken back
to slightly more reasonable levels as Model 3 production has
reached internal targets. “Now we’re down to 80 or 90. It’s
pretty manageable,” Musk said.