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SpaceX reportedly fired staff who wrote critical open letter to Elon Musk

It looks like Elon Musk continues to be at loggerheads with employees at the companies he owns as this week reports suggest several SpaceX staff were fired for penning an open letter criticising the tech billionaire.

According to the New York Times (paywall), a number of employees who were involved in drafting said letter were let go on Thursday this week, with an email sent by SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell confirming it as the reason why they were being fired.

“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. 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,” the open letter noted of Musk’s behaviour.

Shotwell’s email to SpaceX staff said that, “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,” she added.

At the time of writing, SpaceX is yet to officially comment on the matter to the media, so it remains to be seen if there was indeed grounds for firing.

Either way, this latest development will place the recent Q&A between Musk and Twitter employees into a heightened light, with some of the issues raised by those at SpaceX likely mirroring sentiment at the social media platform.

With Tesla employees also being told that they would be fired if they did not return to the office, Musk and co. have quite a bit to answer for.

 

 

[Image – Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash]

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