- Exercising his free speech on social media cost Jared Ottmann his job at Tesla. Four weeks ago he posted his concerns that Tesla remained silent after CEO Elon Musk used Nazi mass murderers as a prop in a joke to make light of his critics.
Jared Ottmann accidentally cut short his nearly seven-year career at Tesla by exercising his free speech on social media.
The EV battery pack engineering manager confirmed he was fired last month after speaking out against Elon Musk’s recent pun-ridden joke in which the Tesla CEO and Trump supporter bent the names of infamous Nazis like Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels into a play on words.
“This post by Tesla’s current CEO name drops genocidal a—holes as a joke and has 308,000 likes,” Ottmann wrote on LinkedIn four weeks ago. “What’s a mensch to do?”
By implying critics lacked a sense of humor, Musk had sought to make light of the outrage over his stiff right-armed salute at Trump’s inauguration. White nationalist Nick Fuentes called the gesture a “straight up Sieg Heil,” even as Jewish rights advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) downplayed it.
Hitler-loving white nationalist Nick Fuentes on Elon Musk's salute: "That was a straight up like 'Sieg Heil',' like loving Hitler energy." pic.twitter.com/G6ayaFkH1o
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) January 21, 2025
Ottmann explained in the post how he had raised his concerns regarding Musk’s behavior multiple times internally over the previous week, including with human resources, the compliance department, and investor relations.
Yet Ottmann received nothing more than private messages of solidarity for his concerns, and no corporate action was taken.
“The silence from Tesla is deafening,” he scathed. Within days his employment was terminated.
The case is reminiscent of the eight SpaceX employees who circulated an internal petition in 2022 warning that Musk’s alleged sexist behavior was damaging the company. They were promptly handed their pink slips (they’re now suing to contest their dismissal).
Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025
Some people will Goebbels anything down!
Stop Gőring your enemies!
His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!
Bet you did nazi that coming 😂
Ottmann didn’t respond to a Fortune request for comment by press time, but he confirmed to the New York Times on Thursday that he had been terminated, without elaborating on the specifics. Musk is known to use punitive nondisclosure agreements to minimize potentially damaging leaks.
Musk’s employees face a conundrum—how can they distance themselves?
Yet the Tesla manager wasn’t the only one to take issue with the joke. After being criticized for downplaying Musk’s salute as an “awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm,” anti-Semitism watchdog ADL drew the line at Musk using some of the worst mass murderers in history as a humorous prop.
“Elon Musk, the Holocaust is no joke,” ADL boss Jonathan Greenblatt said; “it is inappropriate and offensive to make light of it.”
Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah. https://t.co/pYpTeRu3Aa
— ADL (@ADL) January 23, 2025
Musk’s numerous far-right controversies pose a conundrum to his employees. Unlike Tesla owners who affix bumper stickers stating they bought their car “before Elon went crazy,” there’s no easy way to create distance when you draw your paycheck from him.
Remain silent, and others might consider you complicit. Speak up and you risk being fired.
Around the time Ottmann posted his criticism, a former Tesla Germany employee said she was worried for her ex-colleagues still working there following Musk’s full-throated support of the far-right AfD.
“I used to be incredibly proud to be part of Tesla and one of the first employees hired in Grünheide,” wrote Karina Sophie Bock last month. “But today, I can no longer say that.”
