Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, is the billionaire’s second favorite ‘baby’, second to Tesla only. And he wants his ‘children’ to respect him. So any sign of disrespect and disagreement with him will be judged harshly.
The public is aware that several days ago, some of the company’s employees decide that they had enough of Elon’s nonsense. They decide to express their dissatisfaction with the ‘politics’ of their CEO by signing and sending an open letter to him, and the news outlet, The Verge. The letter includes the stance of the employees on Elon’s lately behavior, tweets, and also, political provocations that he constantly does.
And this is their mistake. As soon as the letter gets into Elon’s hands, he decides to speak to the employees and let them go immediately.
You Speak Against Elon Musk, You Get Fired – SpaceX Employees Criticizing Elon Got Fired Instantly
The letter is sent on Thursday, 16th of June. According to a report published the next day, Friday the 17th, the employees that sent the letter are no longer part of the company. The report includes an email from SpaceX’s president Gwynne Shotwell. In the letter, she states that the company proceeded with a contract termination of the employees included in the circling of the letter. In the circling letter, the employees state that they view Musk’s actions as a “frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks.”
The New York Times is the first one to report on the letting go of the affected employees. They say that the information is based on the statements of three employees included in the whole charade. They did not name the employees by their names. However, they assure their readers that the information is true and double-checked.
At the moment, it is not exactly known how many SpaceX employees lost their jobs. But according to Shotwell they well deserve it. There is no doubt that this is the correct way to go. With the letter, and with the questioning of the ‘sanity’ of their CEO they did cross a red line. A line which if crossed, can mean only one thing – immense disrespect and hence direct firing.
“The letter, solicitations, and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry. The letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views. We have too much critical work to accomplish. There is no need for this kind of overreaching activism.” – Shotwell states in her email.
While Elon promotes free speech and democracy he is unable to handle criticism. But when you deal with criticism the way he does, that is nothing less than a ‘communist-like’ solving of issues. Furthermore, this fear of ‘letting go’ if employees speak against him, present a totalitarian way of handling his companies. And when there is such pressure on employees, things are not going to end well.
