SpaceX Fires Employees Who Exposed CEO Elon Musk

Elon Musk is one of the most enigmatic figures in both popular culture and the world of technology. The billionaire made headlines last month, but for all the wrong reasons. Musk faced serious accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior after he allegedly exposed himself to an employee. Once again, he’s at the center of controversy.

According to The Verge, SpaceX has fired a number of employees who wrote and shared a letter criticizing the behavior of CEO Elon Musk. The company’s president slammed the letter as “overreaching activism.” The open letter described Musk’s behavior as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks.

The letter claimed, “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company.” The letter writers further said, “It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”

Now it appears, a number of the letter’s drafters were fired on Thursday afternoon, according to an email sent by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and seen by The Verge. In the email, Shotwell said SpaceX had “terminated a number of employees involved” in crafting the open letter to executives.

 “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, We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”

One employee who had input in writing the letter, who asked to remain anonymous, argued that the general sentiment among other employees is that Shotwell’s email is “tone deaf.” The employee claimed that the letter was the result of a “month of dedicated hard work and soliciting feedback to try and make sure we got as much input as possible.” We will be on the lookout for more updates. Stay tuned to Thirsty.

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