Twitter CEO Elon Musk slammed a disabled former employee on Tuesday after the worker asked if he had been fired by the social media giant.
Haraldur Thorleifsson, whose biography says he “led an innovation team” on Twitter, reach to Musk publicly on the platform to say his access to the work computer had been cut off for more than a week, but Twitter HR was unable to confirm his employment status.
“You haven’t answered my emails. Maybe if enough people retweet, you’ll reply to me here? Thorleifsson tweeted.
Musk replied asking, “What work did you do?
Thorleifsson list a number of tasks he is said to have done in the company, including “directed design criticism to help improve design across the company.”
“Going from what design to what? Pictures where it didn’t happen,” Musk saidto which Thorleifsson against that his work laptop was locked, prohibiting access to “any photos or documents”.
“Would you say you are a people person? » Musk writingsharing a video clip from the film “Office Space” in which an employee is asked “What would you say you are doing here? »
musk later replied to a separate thread discussing the exchange to claim that Thorleifsson “didn’t do any real work” on Twitter.
“The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no real work, pretended as an excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, while simultaneously tweeting a storm. I can’t say that I have a lot of respect for that,” Musk said.
Thorliefsson explain in response that he suffers from muscular dystrophy and has used a wheelchair for 20 years.
“I am not able to do manual labor (which in this case means typing or using a mouse) for long periods of time without my hands starting to cramp…I can, however, write for an hour or two at both”, Thorliefsson said. “That wasn’t an issue in Twitter 1.0 since I was a senior manager and my job was mostly to help teams move forward, giving them strategic and tactical advice.”
The former Twitter employee said he sold his company Ueno to the social media app amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My business was making a lot of money and Twitter’s bid was less than any smart valuation would say. But like you, I made a bet on Twitter having a lot more potential than there had”, Thorliefsson said to Musk, referring to the Tesla CEO’s controversial acquisition of the company last year.
Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been plagued by platform issues and concerns over security and moderation of content on the app. Twitter’s management has been extensively overhauled and staff have been significantly reduced.
Thorliefsson said he finally got confirmation from HR that his employment with the company had been terminated.
“To be clear. You have every right to fire me. That’s completely fair and fine. But usually people are notified when it happens,” he said. said to Musk. “Maybe with a letter or something.” Which didn’t happen for 9 days despite multiple emails to you and others.