Stories of Tesla being a shitty place to work have been common for a while now. But originally Elon Musk sold it as being part of a project to change the world. He also made it prestigious (or tried to) claiming only the best could work at Tesla.
Elon Musk always made it sound like Tesla was an ideologically very sought after work place on all levels. Also as in being on the winning team.

How effective all that bullshit really was IDK, but it sounded real in the beginning. I doubt many believe the bullshit today.