SpaceX is firing employees who wrote an open letter complaining about Musk

SpaceX has fired a number of employees who wrote and shared a letter criticizing CEO Elon Musk’s behavior, and the company’s boss criticized the letter as “exaggerated activity.”

open letter mentioned for the first time before the edgeand described Musk’s behavior as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, especially in recent weeks.” He cites SpaceX’s “No Asshole” policy and asks the company to “address and condemn Elon’s malicious behavior on Twitter.”

The authors of the letter said: “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX – every tweet Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical that we make it clear to our teams and our potential talent pool that his message does not reflect our work or mission. Or we evaluated.

Several letterwriters were fired Thursday afternoon, according to an email sent and viewed by SpaceX chief Gwen Shotwell. the edge. News of the shooting was first reported before New York times.

In the email, Shotwell said that SpaceX “has terminated a number of employees involved” in drafting the letter. “The letter, petitions, and general process made employees feel uneasy, intimidated, intimidated and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign something that did not reflect their views,” Shotwell wrote. “We have a lot of critical work to get done and I don’t need that kind of hyperactivity.”

One of the employees who co-wrote the letter, who asked not to be identified, argued that the general feeling among other employees was that Shotwell’s email was “tone-deaf”. The employee claimed that the letter was the result of “a month of dedicated hard work and soliciting feedback to try and make sure we get as much input as possible.”

We’ve reached out to SpaceX for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

Musk has always been a fickle person, but since his proposed takeover of Twitter in April — a $44 billion deal that has yet to be finalized — his behavior has drawn more attention. Last month , from the inside It was reported that SpaceX paid the hostess $250,000 after Musk He claims to have revealed himself to her and suggested it. Musk later joked about the incident on Twitter, telling another user “If you touch my country, you can have a horse.”

You can read Shotwell’s email to the company below:

You may have received an unsolicited request from a small group of SpaceX employees to sign you an “open letter” yesterday and to participate in a related survey. Judging by the various employee feedback, this has upset many. This means that the rhetoric, requests, and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated, intimidated, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign something that did not reflect their views. Employees also complained that it interferes with their ability to focus on and do their work. We have 3 launches in 37 hours for critical satellites this weekend and we have to support the astronauts we’ve delivered to the ISS and recharge the Dragon into flight readiness, and after receiving environmental approval early this week, we’re on the cusp of the first Attempted orbital launch of the Starship. We have a lot of critical work to get done and I don’t need that kind of hyperactivity – our current leadership team is more dedicated to ensuring we have a great, ever-evolving work environment than any I’ve seen in my 35-year career.

We require and expect our employees to report all concerns to their leadership, senior management, Human Resources or Legal. But covering thousands of people across the company with frequent unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsupported surveys during the working day is unacceptable, goes against our documented brochures policy, and does not demonstrate the strong judgment necessary to act on this particular matter. The challenge of the teleport sector. We conducted an investigation and suspended a number of relevant employees.

I’m sorry for this distraction. Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time at work to perform at your best. This is how we will get to Mars.

Update Friday, June 17 at 4:20 am: The story has been updated with a full Shotwell message.