Tesla Workers Have Walked Off With 65K Coffee Mugs

There's a big problem at Tesla's factory in Germany: vanishing coffee mugs. Some 65,000 have disappeared since production began two years ago at the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, Tesla's first European factory, per Quartz. Plant manager Andre Thierig raised the issue during a recent staff meeting. "I'm really tired of approving orders to buy more coffee cups," he said. Given that the factory employs 12,000 workers, "statistically speaking, each of you already has five Ikea coffee cups at home." Thierig then threatened to eliminate cutlery from break rooms if the thefts continued, though the threat doesn't appear to have been taken seriously. Thierig's whole speech on the matter was met with "laughter and applause," per Deutsche Welle.

Indeed, the matter is considered the least of Tesla's concerns with the Gigafactory in Grünheide, per Quartz. Since production began, the plant has been accused of violating environmental laws, health regulations, and worker safety protections. In response to the latest report, Thierig tried to focus on the good. "Whilst the whole world thinks we are only busy with mugs, we actually care about the most important asset of our Gigafactory—our people," he wrote Thursday on LinkedIn, celebrating the "pre-opening" of an employee gym at the plant, per Quartz. He also recently shared footage of what he called the "Giga Berlin rave cave," a nightclub beneath the plant, receiving "much mockery online," per the Berliner. (More Tesla stories.)