Man wins $600,000 in lawsuit after failing to respond to Elon Musk’s ‘hard-core’ email
Elon Musk ruffled feathers after sending an ultimatum to Twitter employees when he took over, but Gary Rooney wasn't about to play chicken
Former Twitter worker Gary Rooney has won a $600,000 lawsuit after he it was presumed he'd resigned when he didn't respond to an email.
After swooping in and taking over the social media platform in 2022, Elon Musk wasted little time in cracking the whip and offering employees an ultimatum.
If they agreed to his demands, they were required to click a link. Fail to click the link? Well, they could wave goodbye to their role.
And Gary Rooney didn't click.
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Musk sent an email to all members of staff outlining his expectations for the company and their work within it when he took over.
He said in the 2022 email: "Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore.
"This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade."
Musk then directed staff to a link and told them to click it if they wanted to be ‘part of the new Twitter’, giving them until 5:00pm New York time the next day.
Anyone who didn't click the link would receive an outlined three months' severance pay instead.
Rooney - director of 'source to pay' in Twitter's European headquarters in Dublin at the time - saw the email, but didn't click the link, which Twitter's HR saw as a 'decision to resign and accept the voluntary separation offer'.
But Rooney fought back and brought a case to Ireland's Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Just three days after Musk's original email, Rooney received another email from HR acknowledging his apparent resignation and stating his access to his work accounts had been removed.
The WRC's report shows Rooney replied clarifying he had not at any time indicated he would be 'resigning', however, HR responded explaining not clicking the link was being 'treated as you having served notice to resign your employment'.
Rooney told the WRC he'd actually thought the email from Musk had been spam and that's why he hadn't initially opened it.
Once he had opened it, Rooney messaged another colleague he needed to 'step away' and have a think - Musk's entrance having ruffled many Twitter employee's feathers.
Twitter tried to argue these messages indicated he wanted to resign but ultimately, the WRC resolved Twitter giving 24 hours' notice to employees was not 'reasonable' and that Rooney's messages confiding in a fellow colleague had 'no relevance to the question as to what brought about the termination of the complainant’s employment'.
In light of the work he'd missed from January 2023 to May 2024, and the loss of future pay, Rooney was subsequently awarded a total of €550,131 ($607,802).
His solicitor, Barry Kenny, resolved, as quoted by The Guardian: "[I welcome] the clear and unambiguous finding that my client did not resign from his employment but was unfairly dismissed from his job, notwithstanding his excellent employment record and contribution to the company over the years.
"It is not okay for Mr Musk, or indeed any large company to treat employees in such a manner in this country. The record award reflects the seriousness and the gravity of the case."
UNILAD has contacted Twitter for comment.
Poppy Bilderbeck