SpaceX Fire Employees Involved in Letter Criticizing Musk

SpaceX fired employees who participated in writing a memo criticizing the behaviour of the company's CEO Elon Musk, the New York Times reported on Friday.

SpaceX, the private rocket company, on Thursday fired employees who helped write and distribute an open letter criticizing the behaviour of its chief executive, Elon Musk, said three employees with knowledge of the situation.

SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said: “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."

Shotwell added: “We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”

The employers described Musk's behaviour as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment."

Last week, the billionaire, called for reducing the company’s white collar employment by 10% as a confirmation of the email cited by Reuters.

Musk said: “Tesla will be reducing salaried head count by 10 percent, as we have become overstaffed in many areas,” Musk stated, in addition, the number of hourly employees would increase.

In a previous email revealed by Reuters, the chairman ordered pausing hiring worldwide,” explaining that he experienced a “super-bad feeling” about the future of the economy.

Shortly, Musk later stated on Twitter that a “total headcount will increase, but salaried should be fairly flat,” before confirming that the plan for the upcoming cuts..

According to Wall Street Journal, Tesla cancelled several virtual jobs which were supposed to take place in China in the upcoming weeks.