Are his companies consistently ranked the best two places to work, as per your initial claim?

Why not? Wouldn't you agree that a company working on space travel is an ideal choice for an engineering student, where Twitter might not be?

Nevermind the actual employee satisfaction rate is sub-par. You're conflating fresh-faced idealism with reality.

Your link talks about how Tesla and SpaceX are the most attractive employers for engineering students, not that they're ranked the top two places to work. This isn't because of Elon, but because of what these companies do.

From the same year as your article, Tesla employee satisfaction ratings slip amid cost-cutting, layoffs :

> At jobs site Glassdoor, Tesla's overall company rating fell to 3.2 out of 5.0 stars based on reviews written in the first quarter from a high of 3.6 in 2017, according to historical data compiled by Glassdoor at Reuters' request. The average rating of the nearly 1 million employers reviewed on the site is 3.4.

> In the first quarter, Elon Musk's CEO approval rating dropped to 52% from 90% in 2017.

> Tesla's "recommend to a friend" rating fell to 49% in the first quarter from a high of 71% two years prior, the Glassdoor data showed.

> For comparison, Ford Motor Co. rates 3.9 stars, with Jim Hackett earning a 72 percent CEO rating, and 76 percent would recommend the company to a friend. General Motors rated 3.4 stars, with 67 percent approval of CEO Mary Barra and a 59 percent recommend rating. Toyota North America earned a 3.7 rating, 91 percent approve of CEO Akio Toyoda, and 69 percent would recommend to a friend.

Elon's going to face much tougher challenges expecting the same work-life imbalance from employees working for a social media site as opposed to a company that revolutionized the EV industry and a company that is essentially competing with NASA.

Edit for your edit:. Neither Tesla nor SpaceX even ranks at all in the 2022 Fortune 100 top companies to work for.