Elon Musk mocks disabled employee right after sacking him in front of millions on Twitter
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: AC NewsPhoto / Alamy. PSL Images / Alamy.
Elon Musk has brutally sacked an employee live on Twitter, mocking him and his disability in front of millions.
Senior Twitter director Haraldur Thorleifsson just wanted to know if he'd been laid off or not.
According to him, he'd reached out to the human resources department at the blue bird but was unable to get a clear answer.
He claimed he had emailed Musk himself, and when that didn't work, he took his complaint public in the hope that the power of the people would elicit a response from the billionaire.
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Which it did and, we have to say, Musk didn't handle it very well.
"Dear @elonmusk 9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees," Thorleifsson wrote on Twitter.
"However, your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You've not answered my emails. Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?"
Thorleifsson, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair, founded and then sold Ueno agency to Twitter in 2021.
Ever since he has been working at the social media platform.
Well, until now.
"What work have you been doing?" Musk fired back at Thorleifsson's query about his employment status.
After seeking permission from his now former boss to break his confidentiality agreement, Musk hit back at Thorleifsson's job description and several achievements, replying: "Pics or it didn’t happen."
Brutal.
He then tweeted a short clip of a firing scene from the TV show Office Space.
Savage.
When people started retweeting the spicy exchange between Musk and his now former employee, Musk doubled down.
"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," Musk wrote, adding that he doesn't have respect for someone like that.
But it wasn't over.
Thorleifsson fired back at Musk, explaining how his muscular dystrophy actually impacts his day-to-day tasks.
"I'm not able to do manual work (which in this case means typing or using a mouse) for extended periods of time without my hands starting to cramp," he said.
"I can however write for an hour or two at a time. This wasn't a problem in Twitter 1.0 since I was a senior director and my job was mostly to help teams move forward, give them strategic and tactical guidance."
He then went in for the skill: "But as I told HR (I'm assuming that's the confidential health information you are sharing) I can't work as a hands on designer for the reasons outlined above. I'm typing this on my phone btw. It's easier for [me] because I only need to use one finger."
He added: "I hope that helps! Let me know if you are going to pay what you owe me? I think you can afford it?"
Oof. Yet another brutal day at the blue bird, it would seem.