As the first batch of fresh graduates who signed a contract with Tesla in last autumn's recruitment, Zhang Lin was originally the lucky one among his peers. But two months before graduation, he lost his job.
On April 23, Tesla's HR informed Zhang Lin that due to external reasons, Tesla would optimize its personnel and would withdraw the offer issued to him. Zhang Lin had to devote all his energy to finding a job, but the spring recruitment was coming to an end, and his progress was not smooth.
Zhang Lin is not the only fresh graduate with a similar dilemma. Recently, Tesla withdrew its offer to fresh graduates, and the topic of chip design company Xiangdixian Computing Technology (Chongqing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiangdixian") terminating the contract of fresh graduates has been on the hot search on social platforms.
The Economic Observer Network learned that Tesla and Xiangdi first gave compensation to the terminated fresh graduates with a basic salary of one month and 10,000 yuan respectively. However, a number of fresh graduates who suffered termination said that the compensation was not satisfactory, the spring recruitment was about to end, many positions had been filled, and they lost more than just an offer.
These fresh graduates have tried to defend their rights against the recruiter under the employment agreement for college graduates (hereinafter referred to as the "tripartite agreement"), but they found that the existing agreement does not specify the specific responsibilities that the other party should bear after breaching the contract, and some agreements do not even stipulate the liability of the other party for breach of contract. They also turned to the school, but the solution offered by the school was to morally condemn and restrict the defaulting company from recruiting for school.
When choosing their first job after graduation, these fresh graduates tend to pay more attention to the company's visibility, development prospects and salary package, and do not pay much attention to the risk of default by the recruiter. But before leaving the "ivory tower", Tesla and the elephant emperor first taught them a "final lesson".
Go
Zhang Lin said that when he was recruited last autumn, he had received offers from an energy state-owned enterprise, Tesla and Haier, and hesitated for a long time. Considering Tesla's industry popularity and attractive salary package, he turned down two other companies, "looking back now, my bowels are remorseful".
According to Zhang Lin, there are about 30 fresh graduates he knows who have signed contracts with Tesla, and "all of them have been laid off." These fresh graduates were originally going to work in positions such as technicians and engineers, all of which were based at Tesla's Shanghai factory. Another fresh graduate who was withdrawn by Tesla said that HR told him that Tesla had terminated all fresh graduates in China.
Some fresh graduates who have graduated from overseas colleges and universities have avoided the termination of the contract due to their early employment. But one of them told Mr. Zhang that they were all in danger and were still worried about being laid off by Tesla.
Tesla's contraction has not come without warning. According to Xinhua News Agency, on April 15, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an internal email to employees that the company would lay off more than 10% of its global workforce to cut costs and improve production efficiency. Based on Tesla's global workforce count, the layoffs will affect more than 14,000 employees.
In Zhang Lin's view, among the fresh graduates who were terminated by Tesla, some of them have excellent academic qualifications and abilities, and they are ready to join positions such as engineers and R&D, and they may not worry about finding new jobs after being terminated. However, there are still some fresh graduates studying in "double non" (non-"double first-class" construction) universities, and the current situation is more embarrassing.
"After Labor Day, (we) have to go back to school to defend, and after the defense, we are facing graduation, and the job has not yet been settled, and everyone is very anxious these days. Zhang Lin said.
Zhang Lin also said that two fresh graduates who were terminated by Tesla chose to postpone their contracts, and they wanted to fight for jobs in the next autumn and spring recruitment. He felt that this was a helpless move: "It will be delayed for another year, and the HR of many companies will ask students what year they graduated. ”
Zhang Lin could not disclose more information about this termination. After withdrawing the offer, Tesla signed an agreement with Zhang Lin not allowing him to disclose the specific content related to the termination, otherwise the company has the right to recover liquidated damages. Zhang Lin said that the batch of fresh graduates who were terminated have not yet received liquidated damages.
Once bitten by a snake
Li Fei, a graduate student at a university in Chongqing, was first withdrawn by Emperor Xiang on April 19. HR told him that the chip industry was changing rapidly, and the company was experiencing a little problem.
"The notice of breach of contract (came) very suddenly, and before HR (sent) the notice, the WeChat group of 19 fresh graduates of the class of 2024 was disbanded. Li Fei said. As a result, these fresh graduates can only communicate with HR separately about compensation, and there is no way to negotiate with Emperor Xiang.
According to Li Fei, after several rounds of interviews such as technical, HR and departmental, he received an offer from Xiangdixian in October last year, and gave up his position in another company for this reason. He listed three reasons for choosing Xiangdixian: Several senior brothers and sisters worked in Xiangdixian, and they reported that the company's conditions and treatment were not bad, and there was no overtime on weekends, and the year-end bonus was paid in the previous year; Xiangdixian's products were mainly for enterprise customers (To B) and government customers (To G), and the order channels may be relatively stable, and the company had chip products taped out at that time, giving people a thriving feeling; Xiangdixian had state-owned shareholders, which made him think that the company would not have major problems in the next two or three years at least.
According to the official website of Xiangdixian, the company was founded in September 2020 and is a high-performance general-purpose/special-purpose processor chip design company. In March this year, Xiangdixian's completely self-developed graphics processing unit (GPU) product "Tianjun No. 1" achieved mass production.
"Once I was bitten by a snake, I was afraid of the well rope for ten years. The termination of the contract this time changed Li Fei's job search thinking, and he does not plan to look for a job in the chip industry again. After communicating with some fresh graduates who were terminated by Emperor Xiangxian, Li Fei believes that bankruptcy, layoffs, salary cuts and non-payment of year-end bonuses are basically the routine operations of chip companies in recent years. Except for a few companies that have survived for a long time, are relatively large in volume and have relatively mature products, other companies in the industry are not having a good time.
Hu Yunwang has 20 years of experience in the field of chip talent recruitment, and he used the phrase "hugging the basket is the dish" to describe the situation when the investment was overheated in the past few years, and the chip company continued to expand the scale of talents for the next step of financing. However, in the past two years, investment in the chip field has cooled, and this phenomenon has disappeared.
Compensation is not equal
A number of fresh graduates who were terminated said that Tesla's termination compensation was a month's basic salary, and Xiangdixian's termination compensation was 10,000 yuan. But in their opinion, what they need more than compensation is a good offer.
Zhang Lin said that the tripartite agreement he signed with Tesla only stated that if one party proposed to change the agreement, it must obtain the consent of the other two parties, and the party that breached the contract needed to bear the liability for breach of contract. However, the agreement does not clearly state what responsibilities the recruiter should bear after breaching the contract. He felt that the current tripartite agreement has limited protection for graduates. For businesses, laying off fresh graduates seems to be the least cost-effective option. But for fresh graduates, being terminated near graduation will cause them to lose a lot of job opportunities.
Li Fei also mentioned that the tripartite agreement he signed did not stipulate the liability of the recruiter for breach of contract. Xiang Dixian's HR also said that the company compensated him 10,000 yuan out of a sense of responsibility. In May last year, mobile phone manufacturer OPPO dissolved its chip design company Zheku and offered two options to fresh graduates who had not yet joined the company, namely to join other departments of OPPO or accept "N+3" compensation. In Li Fei's view, compared with Zheku's decent ending, the 10,000 yuan compensated by Emperor Xiang this time cannot reach his monthly salary level, and the losses caused by the settlement are not equal, "(The time node of the termination) is too late, and the spring recruitment of Dachang has ended."
Xu Jia is another fresh graduate who was terminated by Emperor Xiang, and after receiving the notice, she asked if she could refuse to terminate the contract. Xiang Dixian's HR told Xu Jia that if the company laid off her after she had reported normally and worked for a month or two, citing poor performance, it would be more difficult for her to find a job because she lost her status as a fresh graduate. Xu Jia believes that although Xiang Dixian's approach did not violate the law, because she and Xiang Dixian signed a tripartite agreement and refused all follow-up opportunities, this termination greatly affected her career plan.
In response to the above-mentioned termination of the contract of fresh graduates, the Economic Observation Network verified with Tesla and Xiangdixian respectively. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. An employee of Xiangdixian said that what was said on the Internet did not match the facts, and the information officially released by Xiangdixian prevailed.
It is not easy to defend your rights
These terminated fresh graduates also planned to protect their rights and interests through the school. However, a counselor at Zhang Lin's university said that because Tesla had already paid liquidated damages, fresh graduates could only morally condemn the company's breach of contract, and it was difficult to defend their rights.
Xie Xin, a fresh graduate studying at a university in Zhejiang, was terminated by a medium-sized manufacturing company in Suzhou at the end of March this year. Before signing the tripartite agreement with the company, she had seen the clause in the agreement that the recruiter would not be compensated for breach of contract, and she was also worried about the possible risks. However, the attitude of HR was very enthusiastic, and Xie Xin also valued the company's two-day system and development prospects, and finally signed the agreement. The company did not compensate Xie Xin after the termination, and she reported the matter to the counselor, but received a response that the school could restrict the company from recruiting students in the future.
Wang Fei, a full-time lawyer at Beijing Hairun Tianrui Law Firm, told the Economic Observer that the relationship between the enterprises and students who signed the tripartite agreement is a contractual relationship, and if the contract does not stipulate liquidated damages, the contracting parties generally do not need to bear the liability for compensation. However, in the event that one party breaches the contract and the contract is terminated, the innocent party may claim compensation from the party at fault for actual losses. For example, after signing a tripartite agreement with a company, a fresh graduate gives up other offers and chooses to rent a house nearby for the convenience of commuting. At this time, the company terminates the contract with the fresh graduates, and needs to compensate them for the corresponding economic losses, including transportation expenses, accommodation expenses and liquidated damages for quitting the lease for participating in the interview.
However, Wang Fei added that after the termination of the contract, the losses of fresh graduates are usually difficult to define, and their litigation costs are relatively high. Wang Fei suggested that fresh graduates can contact the school and entrust the school's enrollment and employment office to communicate with the company about rights protection.
(At the request of the interviewee, Zhang Lin, Li Fei, Xu Jia, and Xie Xin are pseudonyms)