SpaceX Said to Fire Employees Involved in Letter Rebuking Elon Musk

SpaceX, the personal rocket firm, on Thursday fired workers who helped write and distribute an open letter criticizing the habits of chief government Elon Musk, stated three workers with data of the scenario.

Some SpaceX workers started circulating the letter, which denounced Mr. Musk’s exercise on Twitter, on Wednesday. The letter referred to as the billionaire’s public habits and tweeting “a frequent supply of distraction and embarrassment” and requested the corporate to rein him in. Mr. Musk is presently closing a $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter.

By Thursday afternoon, SpaceX had fired a few of the letter’s organizers, in accordance with the three workers and an e mail from Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief working officer. In her e mail, which was obtained by The New York Occasions, she stated the corporate had investigated and “terminated a lot of workers concerned” with the letter.

“The letter, solicitations and common course of made workers really feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or indignant as a result of the letter pressured them to signal onto one thing that didn’t mirror their views,” Ms. Shotwell wrote. “Now we have an excessive amount of vital work to perform and no want for this sort of overreaching activism.”

It was unclear what number of workers have been fired. James Gleeson, a SpaceX spokesman, didn’t instantly return a request for remark.

The open letter adopted not too long ago publicized accusations of sexual misconduct in opposition to Mr. Musk amid his contentious acquisition of Twitter. On Thursday, Mr. Musk addressed Twitter workers for the primary time since his takeover provide by way of a video name to reply their questions.

In Might, Insider reported {that a} flight attendant stated Mr. Musk propositioned her for a sexual therapeutic massage throughout a flight to London in 2016. The flight attendant stated he additionally uncovered himself to her and supplied her a horse, in accordance with the article, the main points of which weren’t independently verified by The Occasions.

Mr. Musk referred to as the accusations “utterly untrue” and joked about horses and his genitalia on Twitter. Final month, Ms. Shotwell stated in an e mail to SpaceX workers that she “personally” believed the sexual harassment allegations in opposition to Mr. Musk have been false.

At SpaceX, Mr. Musk isn’t challenged by his personal employees, stated the three workers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity. Earlier this month, he notified the corporate’s employees by way of e mail that they need to spend not less than 40 hours within the workplace or face firing.

The open letter about Mr. Musk’s on-line exercise requested that SpaceX’s leaders “publicly handle and condemn Elon’s dangerous Twitter habits” and “outline and uniformly reply to all types of unacceptable habits.”

In her e mail to employees, Ms. Shotwell wrote, “Blanketing hundreds of individuals throughout the corporate with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to signal letters and fill out unsponsored surveys through the work day is just not acceptable.”

“Please keep targeted on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your greatest work,” she continued. “That is how we’ll get to Mars.”