Three SpaceX employees have been sacked after calling chief executive Elon Musk a “source of distraction and embarrassment” in an open letter.
The letter, which was first circulated on Wednesday and reported by tech website The Verge, criticised Mr Musk for his frequent tweets, saying his missives were “de facto public statement[s] by the company.”
Mr Musk is a heavy user of the social media site, which he is in the process of buying for $44bn. He uses Twitter to share corporate news but also trash-talk rivals such as Bill Gates and post memes. His tweets have landed him in hot water with regulators in the past and made him one of the most popular users on the site, with 98.4m followers.
“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter said.
In response, SpaceX fired three employees who published the letter in a company-wide chat forum read by thousands.
“The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views,” company president Gwynne Shotwell wrote in an all-staff email confirming the sackings, according to the New York Times.
“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”
Mr Musk, chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, has previously courted controversy by using Twitter to describe the US Stock Exchange Commission as the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” and claiming he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420”, a reference to US cannabis culture. The SEC later fined him $20m for publishing misleading statements about Tesla.
Mr Musk has faced accusations of presiding over a hire-and-fire culture. A 2021 book, ‘Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk and the Bet of the Century’, claimed the Tesla chief executive created an atmosphere of fear at the company. He denies the allegations and has called the book “false” on Twitter.
Separate reports on Friday said Tesla was making redundancies in its sales and delivery teams across North America. It came after Mr Musk recently said he had a “super bad feeling” about the US economy.
Mr Musk’s companies have also been subject to lawsuits over their treatment of staff, with multiple legal cases ongoing against Tesla over allegations of discrimination and harassment in its US factories.
A shareholder of Tesla, Mr Musk’s most well-known business, filed a suit against Mr Musk and the Tesla board yesterday accusing them of presiding over a “toxic workplace culture” that allegedly caused “financial harm and irreparable damage to the company’s reputation.”
Tesla has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Tesla and SpaceX were contacted for comment.
