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Comment by twodave | Hacker News Reader

Why is it the company’s responsibility to rehabilitate someone over probably-criminal action? I agree that promoting someone unstable enough to commit sabotaging changes to a company would be the wrong move. It’s not like he is forcing anyone to work there.

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I’m not saying he should be promoted now or before. I’m saying company culture is to blame for this or at least should be the first thing to review instead of blaming the employee immediately. what if the next person that doesn’t get promoted suicides?

You're conflating two issues here. The company is not responsible for the decisions of its employees relating to promotions. It is the employee that chooses to do something irrational for whatever reason. I agree that a company should reflect on any given incident to determine whether there internal factors that may have contributed to its outcome, however ensuring the personal lives of employees are in tip-top shape is not something a company should ever be responsible for.

perhaps, tesla does indeed sound like a company that does the bare minimum required by law for its employees.

Nobody is entitled to a promotion. One is promoted based on merit. And the promotee is not the judge of merit. If someone commits suicide because they didn't get a promotion then I'd argue that person is likely to unstable to be working.

everybody has a breaking point. some lower than others. if they don’t review the culture how would they know if it’s just this person or many more close to the breaking point? not getting promotion might be just one contributing factor. overwork could be another. harassment, discrimination others. they picked one that is convenient

There are fewer promotions than people who want promotions at virtually every company. The vast majority of people don't behave criminally out of spite when they are passed over. At what point does personal responsibility play a role in a person's actions? I'm genuinely curious. If the culture is the first thing that should be reviewed, that seems to imply that it is more to blame than the individual.

I would say that would be an HR responsibility more than a CEO’s responsibility. It’s hard to judge Tesla’s HR philosophy based on a passing comment by Musk.

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