Did Tesla CEO Elon Musk push a former employee?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in news again. And this time, it is not for the right reason. A report has emerged online that claims that the CEO pushed a former employee who had resigned from the company was trying to say goodbye to his co-workers.

The report about this surfaced on Bloomberg that quoted people familiar with the matter. However, the electronic car maker has denied the claim. In a statement given to Roadshow by CNET, a representative from Tesla said, “Elon did exit an employee at our Fremont delivery centre last year due to concerns about his performance, however, there was no physical altercation whatsoever.”

According to Bloomberg, “Musk made physical contact with the staffer in a heated confrontation that drew the attention of other employees and spilled into a hallway and later the parking lot, the people said. [..] The employee told people that Musk had pushed him, an account corroborated by others with knowledge of the incident. Another person described it as a tap or light touch.”

The report further claimed that the alleged incident prompted Tesla‘s board to launch an enquiry into the behaviour and conduct of its former Chairperson and current CEO. However, no evidence of physical altercation was found. It has also been claimed that Musk swore at the former employee and asked him to leave the company premises immediately.

According to the report, “The board concluded there was no ‘physical altercation,’ though it didn’t specifically address the allegation of physical contact or verbal haranguing.”

The report also said that the Board of the electric car maker also sent out an email saying, “It is the board’s responsibility to take seriously any potential issues that come to our attention involving senior executives, no matter how small or how large. In this instance, we conducted a thorough review, which proved that there was never a physical altercation, a fact confirmed by multiple people who were present at the time.”

On the other hand, the report in CNET said, “Those reports are simply untrue as confirmed by numerous people that observed the incident first-hand.”

We should mention that this is not the first time that Musk has been reported to be yelling at his staffers and firing them. In December last year, a report in Wired said that a few Tesla employees were told not to walk past Musk’s desk in case it jeopardised their career.