Hawthorne, California (AP) – SpaceX, a rocket company run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has fired several employees in an open letter criticizing the colorful billionaire for his behavior, according to media reports.
Reports released Friday quoted an email from Gwyn Shotwell, president of SpaceX, saying the company had fired employees who collected and distributed the letter. The authors of the letter condemned Musk for actions that, in their opinion, are “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, especially in recent weeks.”
The New York Times was the first newspaper to report the purge based on information from three officials familiar with the situation. The employees were not named.
It is unclear how many SpaceX employees have lost their jobs, but Shotwell has left no doubt that the company believes they have crossed an unacceptable line.
“The letters, requests and the general process made employees feel uncomfortable, scared and harassed and / or angry because the letter forced them to sign something that did not reflect their views,” Shotwell wrote in an email to the Times. “We have too much critical work to do and there is no need for this kind of excessive activism.”
The layoffs came Thursday, the same day Musk approached Twitter for the first time about his $ 44 billion deal to add the social media service to his business empire. The purchase is unknown as Musk tries to determine whether Twitter has concealed the number of fake accounts on its platform.
As the drama unfolded on Twitter, another report emerged that Musk had paid $ 250,000 to the flight attendant to drop a potential sexual harassment case against him. Musk has denied allegations of sexual harassment, and Shotwell sent an email to SpaceX staff last month saying he believed the allegations were untrue.
In recent weeks, Musk has also mocked the appearance of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Twitter and posted emojis during an online discussion with Twitter CEO Parag Agraval.
An open letter from SpaceX employees criticizing Musk said some of his tweets sent to his 98 million followers put the company in a bad light.
“As our CEO and most prominent speaker, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX – every tweet sent by Elon is a de facto public statement by the company,” the open letter said. “It is crucial to make it clear to our teams and our potential talent pool that his messages do not reflect our work, our mission or our values.
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