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Elon Musk has thousands and thousands of critics — and devoted followers — and nowhere is that clearer than on Twitter. Since Musk, who’s the world’s richest particular person and the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Firm, and Neuralink, introduced plans in April to purchase the social media firm, the talk has intensified round whether or not he’s a genius who’s saving the world or merely a crass billionaire with a giant platform. And extra individuals, together with his personal staff, have begun elevating questions concerning the more and more blurry line between his Twitter persona and his function because the chief of a number of main firms.
Final Thursday, SpaceX reportedly fired no less than 5 staff concerned in writing a letter to firm executives condemning Musk’s current conduct — significantly on Twitter, the place he has been interacting extra steadily with right-wing politicians and pundits. In current months, Musk’s Twitter exercise has included posting a meme concentrating on Twitter government Vijaya Gadde, making light of an allegation that he had sexually harassed a SpaceX flight attendant, and mocking Bill Gates’s appearance. The letter centered on Musk’s conduct on Twitter, the place he has been more and more vocal about US politics and his criticisms of the Democratic Party, which he says has swerved too far to the left.
“Elon’s conduct within the public sphere is a frequent supply of distraction and embarrassment for us, significantly in current weeks,” the letter reads. “As our CEO and most distinguished spokesperson, Elon is seen because the face of SpaceX — each Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public assertion by the corporate.”
The firings adopted a Verge report on Thursday concerning the letter, which represents the primary time such a doc from staff to Musk has surfaced, and marks one of the crucial public concerted actions so far in opposition to Musk from staff of one among his firms. Musk already has huge affect, however now that he’s on monitor to personal Twitter, one of many largest social media platforms within the US, his voice may have even larger attain. It additionally implies that his means to affect what individuals say about him will doubtless be larger too. The SpaceX letter, and the next firing of the workers concerned with it, reveals there’s a rising stress between how Musk presents himself as a person — albeit a really public particular person — and the way his staff really feel represented, or misrepresented, by their CEO.
One of many motion objects proposed by staff within the letter is to “publicly handle and condemn Elon’s dangerous Twitter conduct” and “swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon’s private model.”
However the SpaceX letter isn’t solely involved with Musk’s abrasive “private model” on Twitter. The letter writers contend that this conduct was “emblematic” of a bigger tradition challenge at SpaceX. “SpaceX’s present programs and tradition don’t stay as much as its acknowledged values,” the letter mentioned. It referred to as on leaders to higher promote a office tradition valuing variety, fairness, and inclusion.
The businesses Musk runs have confronted a number of allegations of fostering an unhealthy, and even abusive, work setting. On Thursday, Tesla investor Solomon Chau filed a lawsuit in opposition to Tesla in Texas, the place the corporate is headquartered, for failing to adequately handle the claims of office abuses. “Tesla has created a poisonous office tradition grounded in racist and sexist abuse and discrimination in opposition to its personal staff,” Chau mentioned within the go well with.
This follows a case from February by which the state of California sued Tesla’s Fremont manufacturing unit over allegations of racism. The lawsuit represented over 4,000 former and present Black staff who claimed that Black staff had been segregated into separate elements of the manufacturing unit. In line with interviews performed by the Los Angeles Occasions, there was a very labor-intensive part of the plant that was nicknamed “the plantation” by Tesla staff. One Black employee mentioned that they heard racial slurs as usually as 50 to 100 instances a day.
Musk’s firms have additionally confronted allegations of sexual harassment points within the office. In 2021, 5 former SpaceX staff advised The Verge they’d confronted or witnessed sexual harassment on the firm. One former SpaceX engineer, Ashley Kosak, printed an essay detailing her expertise throughout her time on the firm, the place she had began as an intern in 2017. “I reported every incident of sexual harassment I skilled to HR, and nothing was achieved,” she wrote. “Every man who harassed me was tolerated regardless of the corporate’s so-called no-tolerance and no-asshole coverage.”
SpaceX’s “no asshole” coverage is well-known. President Gwynne Shotwell has boasted that the corporate’s zero tolerance for assholes prevents interruptions, which in flip boosts innovation. The open letter drafted by staff final week claimed that, in actuality, the corporate didn’t stay as much as this coverage.
Musk himself has additionally been accused of mistreating staff. In Might, Enterprise Insider reported an allegation that Musk had sexually harassed a SpaceX flight attendant, exposing himself to her and providing to purchase her a horse in trade for an “erotic therapeutic massage.” After the report surfaced, Musk joked about it on Twitter.
Now, 5 SpaceX staff have misplaced their jobs after criticizing their CEO’s management. SpaceX has not but responded to a query on whether or not Musk was straight concerned in firing the workers, however Musk has a reported historical past of firing critics; within the guide Energy Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Wager of the Century, writer Tim Higgins reviews a number of situations of Musk firing his staff in moments of anger, together with individuals who disagreed with him. Bloomberg reporter and Musk biographer Ashlee Vance quoted a SpaceX engineer in his guide Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Improbable Future who mentioned that “the remedy of workers was not good for lengthy stretches of this period.” The worker recalled some engineers “being blamed for issues they hadn’t achieved” and fired. “The kiss of dying was proving Elon fallacious about one thing,” the engineer advised Vance.
The SpaceX worker letter and its fallout additional reveal the dissonance between Elon Musk the genius innovator and Elon Musk the supervisor. For a very long time, Musk has commanded respect as an excellent tech founder who many consider is pushing humanity ahead. If his management is a bit of brash — even abusive — many appeared to suppose that may be forgiven as a result of sheer significance of Tesla’s and SpaceX’s missions. Musk has drawn comparisons between his work and philanthropy, and has mentioned that sending people to Mars is vital with a purpose to “extend the light of consciousness.”
This larger-than-life imaginative and prescient of Musk and his firms has usually drawn individuals to work for him. However, as a few of his SpaceX staff made clear, his current conduct and the scandals which have adopted are detrimental to that mission. As Musk turns into more and more divisive on Twitter, a communications platform that he intends to personal, how can his staff proceed to separate the 2 personas — social media movie star and CEO — and do their work with out PR distractions? That’s the query a few of Musk’s staff appear to be grappling with now.
Musk’s staff at Twitter appear to already be cautious of their future boss. In a digital assembly with Twitter staff final Thursday, Musk wouldn’t deny the opportunity of layoffs after the acquisition. A video of inner Slack messages of staff reacting critically to Musk in the course of the assembly was additionally leaked on Twitter, with no names redacted. Musk replied on Twitter to the leak with one phrase: “Fascinating.”
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