Elon Musk trolled one of his own employees on Twitter and it was a glorious self-own in the most extraordinary exit interview ever
Another day, another Elon Musk Twitter storm. Except we’ve never seen the Mars-loving mega billionaire self-implode in quite so entertaining style as this.
It began when someone called Haraldur Thorleifsson, who until recently was employed at Twitter, found himself locked out of his computer along with 200 fellow Twitter workers.
Unable to get a straight answer from Twitter’s HR (or what’s left of it) to find out whether he was still employed or not, he decided to go direct to Musk on Twitter.
And this happened, as captured by @anothercohen.
Just in case Musk hadn’t already been disparaging and unreasonable enough, he doubled down with this.
The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) 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.
Can’t say I have a lot of respect for that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
And this.
But was he fired? No, you can’t be fired if you weren’t working in the first place!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
It prompted no end of people weighing in on Thorleifsson’s behalf …
It’s obvious he did all middle management work from that exchange but I personally would not put an ex employee on blast and force them to prove their worth in front of 100m+ people
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) March 7, 2023
… which prompted Musk – to no-one’s great surprise, probably – not just to double down, but triple down.
He has a prominent, active Twitter account and is wealthy. The reason he confronted me in public was to get a big payout.
From what I’ve been told, he’s done almost no work for the past four months, middle-management or otherwise.
Despite his claims on Twitter that he did… https://t.co/LGuAlg4Eew
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
But eventually the evidence that @iamharaldur deserved rather more – considerably more – than Musk’s public scorn kept stacking up, and probably no-one said it better than this person.
As someone who has worked directly with @iamharaldur during a turnaround, this is super disappointing to see. Not only is his work ethic next level, his talent and humility are world class. Exactly the kind of person you want on your team when the odds are stacked. I feel certain… https://t.co/Hk5nW1Y9ab
— Daniel Houghton (@danielhoughton) March 7, 2023
Cue a rapid – and supremely entertaining – reverse ferret.
Based on your comment, I just did a videocall with Halli to figure out what’s real vs what I was told. It’s a long story.
Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
I would like to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. 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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
Oof.
‘Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet.’
And here are just a few of the many things people were saying about it.
1.
“there are many people on Twitter defending (the disabled dude I just publicly fired and mocked for being disabled). This hurts my faith in humanity.”
😂
— John Upton (@johnupton) March 7, 2023
2.
tfw you’ve consulted with your attorneys https://t.co/v9EnXk53V4
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 8, 2023
3.
😂 This thread reads like a script from The Office…
— Priscilla Pilon (@PriscillaPilon) March 7, 2023
4.
Someone just discovered they might have to pay a $100M severance package because they done fukced up. https://t.co/HAYQ9BeKAR
— I Smoked Steve Bannon (@BlackKnight10k) March 8, 2023
5.
Defamation, retaliation, and unpaid wages lawsuit incoming!
— LeGate (@williamlegate) March 7, 2023
6.
when your lawyers just told you how expensive your bullshit is going to be https://t.co/NakjlD5JKm
— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) March 7, 2023
7.
I do hope someone has been filming since Elon took over and they are making a sequel to The Office, because you can’t make all this (cough) stuff up…
— Priscilla Pilon (@PriscillaPilon) March 7, 2023
8.
no one has ever been owned online as much as this man https://t.co/bSPICv2xni
— metal.txt (@metaltxt) March 8, 2023
9.
“I didn’t realize how much money I’d have to buy him out for by firing him.” Good one buddy.
— Evan (@EVComedy) March 7, 2023
10.
https://twitter.com/jamieeast/status/1633374920406183937?s=20
11.
This is amazing but I gotta be honest Elon, seeing all of this go down in my replies has been an emotional rollercoaster
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) March 7, 2023
12.
It's important that you imagine him saying this in a low baby talk voice surrounded by a fleet of $1k/hour lawyers nodding encouragingly. https://t.co/I2lGi6M479
— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) March 8, 2023
13.
Can I get my job back too?
— Trey Wheeler (@treywheeler_) March 8, 2023
Last word(s), of course, to the man who started it, Haraldur Thorleifsson.
Hello new friends!
You don’t have to like me but I think you’re pretty great.
Here is my favorite photo. I like it. But again, you don’t need to. pic.twitter.com/OFJab0LG2h
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
In other news, I’m opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik very soon.
It’s named after my mom. Like many mom’s she was the best mom in the world.
Kind, funny, hard working and a wonderful artist. And cool, oh boy was she cool.
See you soon at @AnnaJona pic.twitter.com/YfmcXo3s9k
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
Book us a table!
Anyway, that’s enough about me.
How are you doing?
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
Source Twitter @iamharaldur @anothercohen H/T Guardian