Elon Musk has said he has no 'respect' for a disabled Twitter employee who was unknowingly fired by the company.
The fiasco all started when Halli Thorleifsson, who claims to be an ex-Twitter member of staff, tweeted Musk to ask whether or not he has been sacked.
The 45-year-old said he was a senior director in product design for Twitter.
Advert
The Iceland-based entrepreneur sold his company, Ueno, a creative design agency, to Twitter back in 2021. As part of the acquisition, he said he became a full-time employee at Twitter.
After recently noticing that his work computer 'screen was grey and locked', however, the disabled design manager messaged the head of HR to find out what was going on.
"After a few days had passed I started reaching out to people, including Elon and the head of HR to ask about my situation," Thorleifsson told the BBC.
Advert
"The head of HR has since twice emailed me and has not been able to answer whether or not I am an employee at Twitter."
As a result, he decided to tweet the big boss.
"Dear @elonmusk. 9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees," Thorleifsson wrote on the platform.
"However your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You've not answered my emails.
Advert
"Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?"
Responding to the tweet, billionaire Musk asked: "What work have you been doing?"
After agreeing to 'break confidentiality', Thorleifsson explained what his job entailed.
Advert
The employee continued: "But the original question was if I was still employed or not since you or your head of HR haven’t been able to answer that yet.
"But she did just miraculously reply so I finally have confirmation that I no longer work at Twitter!!"
Musk unexpectedly hit back at Thorleifsson, revealing that Twitter hasn't 'hired design roles in 4 months'.
He then asked for proof of his work: "Pics or it didn't happen."
Advert
Replying to a screenshot of the full conversation, Musk said he lacks 'respect' for the ex-Twitter employee, writing: "The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm.
"Can’t say I have a lot of respect for that."
Thorleifsson concluded: "This is extremely stressful. This is my retirement fund, a way to take care of myself and my family as my disease progresses. Having the richest man in the world on the other end of this, potentially refusing to stand by contracts is not easy for me to accept."
LADbible has contacted Twitter for comment.
Anish Vij