A high ranking finance executive who recently departed Tesla has provided a rare glimpse into the grueling work culture that defined the company during its most turbulent years. Sreeram Erabelly, who served as a Vice President of Finance, shared reflections on his tenure that paint a vivid picture of the sheer desperation and around the clock commitment required to keep the electric vehicle pioneer solvent during the late 2010s.
Erabelly describes a period he refers to as the deathwatch, a time when external analysts and short sellers were betting heavily on the company’s imminent collapse. During the critical ramp up of the Model 3, Tesla faced what Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has previously described as production hell. According to Erabelly, this was not merely a metaphorical struggle but a physical one that saw leadership and engineering teams virtually living at the factory to solve bottleneck issues in real time.
The executive recounted instances of sleeping under his desk on a thin mattress, a practice that became a badge of honor for many within the organization. This extreme approach to work life balance was famously championed by Musk himself, who frequently told the media he slept on the factory floor to show solidarity with his workers and to ensure he was available for any crisis that arose at three in the morning. Erabelly’s testimony confirms that this expectation filtered down through the executive ranks, creating an environment where personal comfort was sacrificed for the survival of the mission.
While Tesla eventually emerged from that period as the most valuable automaker in the world, the human cost of that transition remains a subject of intense debate. Erabelly noted that the intensity of the deathwatch era forged a unique bond among the staff who stayed, but it also necessitated a level of endurance that few corporate environments demand. The finance team was tasked with managing razor thin margins and precarious cash flows while the manufacturing side struggled to meet ambitious delivery targets that many industry experts deemed impossible.
Since those precarious days, Tesla has matured into a global manufacturing powerhouse with multiple gigafactories across three continents. However, the departure of long tenured executives like Erabelly serves as a reminder of the startup mentality that once defined the brand. The transition from a company on the brink of bankruptcy to a member of the S&P 500 has changed the internal dynamics, yet the stories of sleeping under desks remain a foundational part of the Tesla lore.
Critics of the company often point to these stories as evidence of an unsustainable or toxic workplace, while supporters view them as the necessary ingredients for disrupting a century old industry. Erabelly’s reflections suggest that for those in the room during the darkest hours, it was a mix of both. The pressure was immense and the stakes were existential, leaving little room for anything other than total immersion in the task at hand.
As Tesla faces new challenges in the form of increased global competition and shifting demand for electric vehicles, the lessons from the deathwatch era continue to resonate. The company’s ability to survive its early brushes with insolvency has given it a reputation for resilience, but as the original guard of executives moves on to new ventures, the industry is watching to see if that same fire can be maintained in a more stable and corporate environment.
