If somebody isn't performing well, I have no idea why I'd wait up to a year to deal with it. And it seems terrible for morale (and PR) to have a regular event where a bunch of people will be let go in one block.
Maybe I'm just paranoid but this part kind of smells to me.
> Workers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals from the company. Employees said the firings have lowered morale through many departments.
The distribution of noticing problems should be pretty much random, so concentrating the firings in a once-a-year block means a high tolerance for keeping bad employees around. That, or they got rid of these people for reasons not really related to performance.
Probably not right during the ramp up of the most critical product in company's history...
> Tesla has a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board in November for charges that company supervisors and security guards harassed workers distributing union literature. Tesla denied the accusations.
>Openly pro-union workers were among those fired this week. Some believe they were targeted.
> The company denied union activities played a role in the dismissals.
There are dynamics in blue-collar labor and generally manufacturing that are not relevant to software companies.