Elon Musk apologizes after calling disabled Twitter employee who was laid off ‘the worst’

Elon Musk on Tuesday backed down from his assaults on a disabled Twitter worker who was laid off by the corporate and apologized for what he known as a “misunderstanding.”

On Tuesday, the Twitter CEO questioned the work efficiency of Haraldur Thorleifsson — who goes by “Halli” — who he mentioned has “done almost no work for the past four months.” Musk can also be the CEO of electrical automobile producer Tesla.

“I would like to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation,” Musk tweeted late Tuesday. “It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful.”

“He is considering remaining at Twitter,” Musk added.

Thorleifsson, a disabled Icelandic entrepreneur, discovered himself drawn right into a confrontation with Musk after asking in regards to the standing of his employment. Thorleifsson and Twitter, which not has a communications division, didn’t reply to questions from CNBC on the spat by the point of publication.

On Monday, Thorleifsson, 45, tweeted Musk, saying that he had been locked out of his work laptop for a number of days and did not get a response from Twitter’s human assets division on whether or not he had been fired.

He prompt he could have been one in every of 200 workers reportedly let go by the corporate in February. Thorleifsson lives and works within the Icelandic capital Reykjavik along with his spouse and two kids.

Musk, an avid person of Twitter, replied by asking Thorleifsson, “What work have you been doing?” to which Thorleifsson responded saying he saved the corporate $500,000 on a software-as-a-service contract and led prioritization of design tasks.

When Musk probed for extra particulars, Thorleifsson recognized the SaaS contract he saved the corporate cash on because the design platform Figma and mentioned his prioritization work associated to “all active design projects.”

Musk proceeded to reply with two laughing face emojis and later tweeted a hyperlink to a clip from “Office Space,” a comedy film that parodies workplace working tradition, the place an worker is requested, “What would you say you do here?”

Following the back-and-forth with Musk, Thorleifsson mentioned he was knowledgeable by Twitter’s head of human assets that he had been sacked.

Musk proceeded to criticize Thorleifsson over his work efficiency on the firm, saying he “did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm.”

Billy Markus, co-creator of dogecoin and an ally of Musk, expressed disapproval of Musk’s tweets. In a since-deleted response to Markus, Musk mentioned, “He’s the worst, sorry.”

After a Twitter person mentioned he had labored with Thorleifsson immediately and located his work ethic “next level,” Musk says he gave Thorleifsson a video name “to figure out what’s real vs what I was told.” Musk then apologized and prompt Thorleifsson was contemplating staying at Twitter.

Matt Monette, U.Okay. and Ireland nation lead at human assets platform Deel, mentioned there was a “greater need for effective internal communications,” as tech layoffs enhance whereas distant work is turning into extra commonplace.

“If an employee is having to ask their boss via Twitter if they still have a job or not, something has clearly gone pretty wrong,” Monette instructed CNBC by way of electronic mail. “Employers must make sure they abide by the rules in different countries.”

The incident is among the most weird developments thus far within the saga surrounding Musk’s buy of Twitter. Musk agreed to purchase the social media website final yr for $44 billion. He has since sought to chop prices dramatically in a bid to make it a worthwhile enterprise.

As a part of that technique, Musk laid off hundreds of Twitter’s workers. It lower one other 200 jobs final month, in response to a report from The New York Times, taking its complete workers rely all the way down to 2,000 from roughly 7,500 in October.

Thorleifsson was introduced into Twitter as a senior director of product design after the sale of his firm Ueno, a digital model design company, to Twitter in 2021. He suffers from muscular dystrophy, a illness that weakens muscle tissue over time. Thorleifsson defined his incapacity has made it tougher for him to do guide work for prolonged durations of time with out his arms beginning to cramp.

According to Icelandic Review, Thorleifsson was topped Iceland’s “person of the year” in 2022 by a number of Icelandic media retailers, partly as a result of sale of Ueno and his efforts to put in wheelchair ramps throughout the nation.

He says a part of the rationale why he offered the corporate — which he described as being on unfavorable monetary phrases — was that his incapacity made it tougher for him to do guide work.

Thorleifsson says he selected to be paid the deal value as wage since, this manner, he might pay extra in taxes to contribute to public providers.

If he took the cash as a lump sum, it will have been handled as an funding and he would have paid a 22% capital beneficial properties tax. However, by taking it as wage, he opted to pay the upper 46% earnings tax price as an alternative.

Thorleifsson mentioned he was at midnight about whether or not he’ll obtain severance pay. “Companies let people go, that’s within their rights,” Thorleifsson mentioned on Twitter. “They usually tell people about it but that’s seemingly the optional part at Twitter now.”

It isn’t but clear what he’ll determine to do subsequent — though he mentioned earlier Tuesday that he was planning to open a restaurant named after his mom in downtown Reykjavik “very soon.”