NEW YORK: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has fired several employees behind a letter critical of the outspoken billionaire’s public behaviour, the aerospace firm said in a message to staff confirmed by AFP on Friday.
A “small group” of employees sought their colleagues’ signatures in a show of support for the letter and participation in a survey, SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell wrote in an email late Thursday.
The mercurial billionaire regularly uses Twitter to provoke, and speak directly to customers as well as fans and sometimes offend with unfiltered or crude comments.
Shotwell’s message said some workers felt “uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views.”
“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism,” she added.
After conducting an investigation, the company “terminated a number of employees involved,” Shotwell said, without specifying how many.
The workers’ letter, first reported by the website The Verge, criticized Musk’s behavior in public, as well as recent accusations of sexual harassment against him, as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us.”
“As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX – every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company,” the letter added.
Musk, who also heads electric car maker Tesla, is in the midst of a roller-coaster $44 billion bid to buy Twitter that has brought even more attention to the entrepreneur.
LAHORE: The World Health Organization (WHO) said that climate crisis and its threat to health…
The National Assembly on Monday passed six bills, including one seeking an increase in the…
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Monday that it had decided to cut…
The district and sessions court in Islamabad on Monday reserved its verdict on bail pleas…
At least six terrorists were killed by the security forces in two separation operations in…
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari on Monday said that the provincial government had "no intentions"…
Leave a Comment