Former Tesla executive sues Elon Musk’s company over remote work bait-and-switch that upended his life
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A former Tesla executive says he agreed to take a job working remotely for the electric carmaker, which then almost immediately went back on its word and threatened to fire him if he didn’t relocate from his home in Southern California — allegedly prompting the recurrence of an agonizing medical condition and threatening his marriage.
In a lawsuit filed last month in state court and moved to federal court on Wednesday, compliance and operational risk specialist Mike Tully accuses Tesla of a heartless bait-and-switch after “being promised and assured” he wouldn’t be required to move. The Irvine resident only accepted the position because of this guarantee, which came via his new boss, Associate General Counsel Charles Lee, according to the previously unreported complaint.
Tesla lured the 55-year-old Tully away from Bank of America, where he had worked for 16 years, to join its corporate offices in Fremont, about 400 miles north of Irvine, the complaint states. It says Tully informed Tesla senior leadership that “part of the ‘deal’ for him to leave BofA was the promise that his role would remain remote.”
“He made it patently clear to everyone at Tesla that [leaving] Irvine was not negotiable,” and the relevant higher-ups vowed this would not be an issue, according to the complaint.
When they subsequently reneged on the pledge, Tully, whose wife threatened to divorce him if he insisted on uprooting her and their two children, felt “completely blindsided and misled by Tesla and its leadership team,” the complaint says.
Although Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk is not mentioned by name in the complaint, the billionaire MAGA disciple tasked by President-elect Donald Trump to slash massive portions of the federal budget has advocated loudly for government workers to return to the office five days a week.
“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” Musk wrote in a recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
Only about 10 percent of federal workers are fully remote, according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Tesla officials, along with the in-house employment litigation attorney handling the company’s defense, did not respond on Thursday to requests for comment. In a January 10 court filing responding to Tully’s complaint, the company moved to dismiss the case and have it ordered to binding arbitration, citing the terms of Tully’s employment agreement. Tesla also argued that “all purportedly wrongful conduct alleged by [Tully] was necessitated due to business necessity.”
Tully started at Tesla on April 11, 2022, providing legal support services to Lee and the company’s board, assisting with international audits, and ensuring compliance with state regulations for the EV maker’s insurance offerings, according to the complaint. Things were going well, and Tully received “excellent” performance reviews, the complaint contends.
However, two months into the job, Tully “was informed that his position was no longer permitted to be remote, and he was required under a return-to-office mandate to relocate to a Tesla-approved ‘Finance site,’ which was either the Fremont office or a Texas location,” the complaint states. “He was informed that if he failed to relocate, he would be terminated.”
Alarmed, Tully, who had been given a December 2022 deadline to move, went directly to Lee and reminded him of their arrangement. He explained that his family owned a business in Irvine, which his wife managed, and that his children attended college locally, the complaint continues. It says he told Lee he would “evaluate his options and try to work out a plan with his family,” but that, in all candor, relocating “was unlikely.” Convincing his wife to start over in Texas was a virtual nonstarter, and renting a second home in the extremely costly San Francisco Bay Area while commuting home on weekends was financially untenable, the complaint goes on.
Around this time, Tully learned that other staffers in the department had been granted exceptions to the return-to-office mandate, and would be permitted to work from offices closer to home, according to the complaint. As a compromise, Tully suggested he work out of an office Tesla kept in the Irvine area, but, “[w]ithout explanation, he was told this was not an option and he would have to move hundreds of miles away,” the complaint states.
It says Tully’s family “did not support the relocation, and his wife threatened him with divorce if he did so.”
The stress of the situation exacerbated Tully’s Crohn’s and Irritable Bowel Disease, which had rarely acted up during his tenure at BofA, according to the complaint. Flareups were now becoming increasingly common, causing inflammation and intestinal blockage that led to septic attacks and toxic buildup in his system, and leaving Tully bedridden, in agonizing pain, for days on end, the complaint says.
When December rolled around, Tully and his Tesla overlords were still at loggerheads, the complaint alleges, describing Lee as “inflexible” about the relocation issue. Painted into a corner, Tully went to HR and filled them in on his medical condition, according to the complaint. In a last-ditch effort to save his job, Tully asked for an accommodation that would allow him to remain at Tesla while minimizing stress to keep his Crohn’s and IBD under control, the complaint states.
“They discussed various options, such as a nearby office or moving [Tully] to another division within the company that was within an easier commute distance,” it says. “[The HR exec] stated he understood the concern, and he would get back to him.”
The next day, Tully was “summarily” fired, according to the complaint.
“At noon, he was invited to a video conference call with [HR] and Mr. Lee, who stated they could not work out the ‘logistics’ to allow him to remain in Irvine and therefore, since he had failed to relocate, he was terminated,” it says.
Tully is asking a jury to award him punitive, economic, and special damages, along with injunctive relief enjoining Tesla from engaging in the “unlawful, fraudulent and/or unfair practices, policies and patterns” alleged in his complaint, plus attorneys’ fees.
