Elon Musk being asked by a Twitter employee if he has been fired

• Mr. Thorleifsson informed the reporters that he had no idea if he had been sacked or not.
• The Icelandic entrepreneur sold his creative design agency, Ueno, to Twitter in early 2021.
• Elon Musk seemed to terminate another 200 Twitter staff last month.

On Twitter, a Twitter user asked Elon Musk if he had been fired.

Halli Thorleifsson wrote to the company’s CEO in a tweet: “Your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am employed or not.”

Mr. Musk responded by asking, “What work have you been doing?”

Mr. Thorleifsson informed the reporters that he had no idea if he had been sacked or not, nine days after being locked out of Twitter‘s accounts.

Mr. Thorleifsson said he received an email confirming his dismissal after a series of follow-up questions and answers with Mr. Musk that read like a live job interview.

Twitter did not respond immediately to the request for commendation.

Mr. Thorleifsson, 45, worked at Twitter as a senior director of product design. He told the media that the uncertainty surrounding his work was “weird” and “very unpleasant.”

“I opened my computer on Sunday morning, nine days ago, and saw that the screen was gray and locked, indicating that I had been locked out of my Twitter accounts“, he added.

“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.”

Furious, he tweeted Elon Musk, his top employer.

Dear @elonmusk 👋

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9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.

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?

— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 6, 2023

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“Maybe if enough people retweet you’ll answer me here”, Mr. Thorleifsson said. Mr. Musk replied:

Dear @elonmusk 👋

9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.

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?

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— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 6, 2023

Mr. Thorleifsson provided a list of activities he has done at the company in response to many follow-up queries. Mr. Musk finished the conversation by adding two laughing emoticons.

Figma.

All active design projects.

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— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023

Mr. Thorleifsson stated shortly after the interaction that Twitter‘s Human Resources department called him and informed him that he had been dismissed.

The exchange was extensively posted on Twitter, and Mr. Musk responded in kind.

He went on to criticize Mr. Thorleifsson further, saying, “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.

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“I can’t say I have a lot of respect for that.”

The Icelandic entrepreneur sold his creative design agency, Ueno, to Twitter in early 2021, after launching the company in Reykjavik in 2014.

He became a full-time employee of Twitter as part of the transaction.

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“I decided to sell for a few reasons, but one of them is that I have muscular dystrophy, and my body is slowly but surely failing me,” he told the newspaper.

“I have a few good work years left in me, so this was a way to wrap up my company and set myself and my family up for years when I won’t be able to do as much.”

Mr. Thorleifsson is concerned that Mr. Musk may breach the deal he signed with Twitter when he sold his company to them.

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“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,” he added.

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Elon Musk seemed to terminate another 200 Twitter staff last month. Twitter presently employs slightly more than 2,000 people, down from around 7,500 in October.

“Companies let people go; that’s within their rights,” Mr. Thorleifsson said. “They usually tell people about it, but that’s seemingly the optional part at Twitter now”.

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