Have I been fired? An employee asks Elon Musk on Twitter. And this one is laughing at him

also known online as Halli, is an Icelandic entrepreneur and founder of the creative agency Ueno, which has collaborated with brands such as Airbnb, Apple, ESPN, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, PayPal and Walmart.

Thorleifsson, who uses a wheelchair himself, also works actively for people with disabilities. As part of the Rampur project, it is participating in the construction of 1,500 wheelchair ramps in Iceland.

In 2021, Thorleifsson decided to sell his company to Twitter. Uno thus became part of an American corporation, and its founder – as part of the contract – became a full-time employee of Twitter.

Over the next several months, 45-year-old Thorleifsson, already a senior director of product design, headed the team responsible for creating and implementing a number of new solutions for the popular social networking site.

Everything changed in late February when he suddenly lost access to his computer and employee systems. As Thorleifsson explains in a series of tweets, however, he has not received any information from the HR department about a possible dismissal from the company.

I opened my computer Sunday morning nine days ago and saw that the screen was gray and locked, indicating that I was blocked from my Twitter accounts

he recalls.

“Have I been fired?” An employee asks Elon Musk on Twitter. And this one answers

Over the next few days, Thorleifsson asked the human resources department several times about his status at the company. Without result. “The head of HR e-mailed me twice and was unable to answer whether I was a Twitter employee,” he emphasizes.

The frustrated and desperate employee decided to ask Elon Musk himself, the new owner of Twitter, about it. On Monday, Thorleifsson “accused” the second richest man in the world via Twitter.

Dear Elon Musk, 9 days ago my work computer was cut off, as were approximately 200 other Twitter employees. However, your head of HR cannot confirm whether I am an employee of the company or not. You have not replied to my e-mails. Maybe if enough people retweet this message, you’ll reply to me here?

Thorleifsson wrote.

Elon Musk replied. And he did it in a “musky” style. First, he asked Thorleifsson about “what he did” as well as about his achievements in the company. The Icelander – after making sure that he would not break the confidentiality agreement – began to list a number of projects in which he was involved. He mentioned e.g. that thanks to the work of his team, the company saved 500 thousand. dollars on one of the contracts.

At this point, Musk openly taunted his employee. “Photos or it didn’t happen,” he wrote in one response. In the next one, he posted a meme from the comedy “Office Space”, which tells about employees “terrorized” by a ruthless boss.

Elon Musk ended the short exchange of views with two emoticons, the meaning of which does not need to be explained to anyone. However, the whole incident had some effect. On Monday, Thorleifsson received information from the HR department that he had been dismissed from the company.

Elon Musk slows down for power

Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022. In this short time, the controversial billionaire managed to trigger several smaller and larger scandals related to the platform. He started his rule in the company by laying off half of the employees. He then introduced a new way to verify accounts, which sparked a tsunami of fake news on the platform.

In the meantime, Twitter’s new owner wrote an email to employees (those he hadn’t previously fired) giving them a choice: commit to the new “hardcore” Twitter or accept severance pay and leave.

“Only exceptional performance will provide a grade to move on,” Musk said in an email. He also said that the new Twitter will be led mainly by engineers.

As reported by the BBC, Musk laid off another 200 employees at Twitter last month. This means that the company now employs just over 2,000 people – up from 7,500 in October last year.