Memo

To: Chris Lattner, Vice President

From: Alex Pappis

Date: August 3, 2019

Subject: Bridging Communication Gaps Between Millennials and Prior Generations

At our last meeting, yourself and the executives placed an emphasis on finding ways to bridge
communication gaps between millennials and prior generations in our offices. I think that overall
communication between Millennials and prior generations here at Tesla would be improved if
we considered implementing one or both of the following strategies.

ALLOW MORE OPEN COMMUNICATION VERTICALLY

Tesla would see improvements in communications between Millennials and prior generations by
allowing more open communication vertically between supervisors and entry-level Millennial
employees. Implementing a more open and vertical communication system would allow for more
opportunities between millennials and other generational employees to communicate about
company strategies and plans. I believe this would benefit the problem solving and
communication skills between all of our employees and encourage Millennials to offer their
opinions and solutions about ways to improve Tesla’s overall performance. Amplifying
communication and interaction between supervisors and entry-level Millennial employees could
be very beneficial. Tesla would begin to see better working relationships, as well as a greater
sense of trust and camaraderie between Millennial employees and their supervisors.

SUPERVISORS SHOULD BE TRAINED TO MENTOR MILLENNIAL WORKERS

Karen K. Meyers and Kamyab Sadaghiani wrote an article titled, “Millennials in the Workplace:
A Communication Perspective on Millennials’ Organizational Relationships and Performance”
on March 5, 2010. They state, “Empirical studies have found that Millennials (…) view strong
relationships with supervisors to be foundational for their long-term satisfaction in the
organization” (Meyers, Sadaghiani, 2010). Allowing room for supervisors to also serve as
mentors to Millennials will increase the intrinsic value they receive from working here as well as
break down communicative barriers between the Millennial employees and employees that hail
from prior generations. The more Millennials can look up to supervisors and higher-level
employees as mentors, the more likely they are to become productive members of Tesla as they
will place a higher value on their relationships and overall experience.

Thank you for sending me your thoughts on this within the next 3 days. If we want to maximize
the benefits of these potential strategies, we need to implement one or both of them as soon as
possible.