SpaceX Fires Employees Who Circulated Letter Criticizing Elon Musk’s ‘Harmful Twitter Behavior’
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Elon Musk’s antics and tweets frequently make headlines, and they’ve apparently raised the ire of some of his SpaceX employees, who created and circulated an open letter lambasting their boss for his “harmful Twitter behavior.” Now, several of the employees involved in the letter have been fired, one day after the letter first became public.
The Verge broke the story about the letter on Thursday, reporting that the letter had been circulated on SpaceX’s Microsoft Teams internal chats, with employees being asked to sign on either publicly or anonymously. “The letter generated more than a hundred comments in the Teams channel, with many employees agreeing to the spirit of the missive,” according to screenshots provided to The Verge.
A recent sexual misconduct allegation against Musk — and his “public disparagement of the situation” — was a specific source of irritation, according to the letter. Musk has denied any wrongdoing.
“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter argued. “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. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”
The letter went on to call for the company’s leadership to “[p]ublicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior,” for SpaceX to “swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon’s personal brand,” and “[d]efine and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior.”
Friday morning, The New York Times cited three anonymous SpaceX employees as sources to report that SpaceX had fired several of the employees involved with the letter at some point Thursday afternoon.
An email from SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell confirmed the terminations, stating that after an investigation the company had “terminated a number of employees involved.”
Shotwell contended that the letter had “upset many” SpaceX employees, because “the letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views,” and “interfered with their ability to focus on and do their work.”
“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism,” Shotwell wrote, and “blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is unacceptable, goes against our documented handbook policy, and does not show the strong judgement needed to work in this very challenging space transportation sector.”
It is not known how many SpaceX employees were fired. A SpaceX spokesman did not reply to the Times‘ request for comment.
“I am sorry for this distraction,” Shotwell’s letter concluded. “Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time at work to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.”
