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Comment by msoad | Hacker News Reader

Tesla was impacted by this as well. Here is what Elon Musk wrote to all:

> Unfortunately, our payroll processor, Kronos, has been hit with a ransomware attack, making them temporarily unavailable. We are tracking things manually for now and will issue pay manually, if they are unable to get back online. We are doing everything we can from our side. Sorry for the trouble. Elon

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When you depend on third parties for critical but not directly business related tech you are just as vulnerable to disruption as if you directly got hacked. Even huge companies with ridiculous valuations can fail to audit indirect suppliers like payroll (i.e. Kronos) or air conditioning contractors, like in the famous Target hack.

The job of Tesla employees is to deliver the goods, even when it takes super-human efforts and creative miracles. The job of Musk is to pay them, even when it takes super-human efforts and creative miracles. No excuses.

While Musk deserves a huge amount of criticism, what part of "We are tracking things manually for now and will issue pay manually, if they are unable to get back online." sounds like an excuse to avoid the job of paying them?

It's the 'sorry for any problems' part. Don't be sorry, deliver on your responsibility. However, my point is more about management in general.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but my issues with apologies from CEOs or companies is that they are generally lacking action or avoiding accountability. In this case, the apology like any somewhat genuine one adds to the note. It's the difference between "Sorry we lost your data." and "We have taken the following significant actions to make sure this never happens again, and have provided the following services and/or compensation to make it right to you. We are sorry."

And I'm someone who generally finds Musk hard to like.

I don't entirely disagree, but ...

> my issues with apologies from CEOs or companies is that they are generally lacking action or avoiding accountability

Think of it this way: If the employee doesn't deliver on a major obligation, there is no apology, I'll do better next time; they are gone.

> Don't be sorry, deliver on your responsibility

And it sounds like that's exactly what he plans on doing, should there be extended problems (as much as it pains me to defend him)

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