SpaceX is firing employees who criticize Elon Musk

SpaceX has fired a number of employees involved in preparing an “open letter” specifically critical of Elon Musk’s behavior in the public domain, according to a letter sent by the space exploration company’s chief operating officer that confirmed its existence and contents. To AFP by employee.

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A “small group” of employees sent this letter to all of their colleagues asking for their potential signature and participation in the survey, Gwen Shotwell wrote in her end-of-day email Thursday to all employees.

Some felt “uncomfortable, intimidated, and/or angry because the letter encouraged them to sign something that did not reflect their opinion” or because the letter “interfered with their ability to focus on their work,” the manager adds.

However, she believes that “we have a lot of basic work to do and we don’t need that kind of hyperactivity”.

After conducting an investigation, the company subsequently “terminated a number of the employees involved”, Ms Shotwell says without specifying how many.

The open letter in preparation, revealed by The Verge, criticized Elon Musk’s behavior in the public domain, as well as recent accusations of sexual harassment against him, as “a frequent source of distraction and shame for us.”

“As CEO and featured speaker, Elon is the face of SpaceX — every tweet he sends is a de facto public statement coming out of the company, particularly in recent weeks,” he said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.

The head of SpaceX, as well as electric car maker Tesla and several startups, is a regular at the Twitter controversy with regular, sometimes cryptic, and sometimes offensive malicious messages. But it has taken on a new dimension since it announced in April that it wanted to buy the social network.