Getty Image / Jonathan Raa / NurPhoto
After a tumultuous day on Twitter where the service became unusable for over an hour globally, Twitter CEO/owner Elon Musk found himself embroiled in a new Twitter controversy.
A (now) former Twitter employee, Haraldur Þorleifsson who goes by Halli, tweeted publicly to Elon Musk to determine if he was still a Twitter employee. He told Musk that his work computer access had been cut ‘9 days ago’ but that Twitter’s HR would not confirm or deny if he was/wasn’t a Twitter employee.
In a brazen move, Elon Musk appeared to wave confidentiality on Twitter and ask the employee what work they’d been doing. Screenshots of that entire exchange immediately went viral:
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
The person-to-person interaction culminated with Elon Musk sharing a video of ‘The Bobs’ from Office Space. In replying to the screenshots above, Elon Musk publicly disclosed the disability of the former employee.
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
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
Elon Musk is the Twitter CEO and owner. He is the wealthiest person on planet earth. Surely this is a one-sided argument when the distribution of power is so uneven, right? Wrong.
Halli, the former Twitter employee, responded with a scathing thread that lit up Elon Musk. Did I mention that Halli also ‘swept the Person of the Year Awards‘ in Iceland and is considered one of the nicest, most philanthropic people in his entire country?
Here is Halli’s Twitter thread in response to Elon Musk publicly disclosing his disability after bullying him with the Office Space video and replies elsewhere:
Hi again @elonmusk 👋
I hope you are well.
I’m fine too. I’m thankful for your interest in my health.
But since you mentioned it, I wanted to give you more info.
I have muscular dystrophy. It has many effects on my body.
Let me tell you what they are: https://t.co/2vb16kP6Yv
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
For a long time I thought my arms would remain strong. A doctor told me they would.
But they ended up losing strength. Which, I don’t mind telling you, was hard to accept.
But you okay the cards you are dealt and I’ve managed to create a wonderful life.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
About nine years ago I started a company called @uenodotco
I worked a lot, it didn't do my body any favors but it's what I felt I needed to do.
The hard work paid off and the company became very successful.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
But after seven years I was tired. Covid was running for longer than the two weeks you said it would.
And my body was also continuing to get weaker.
After looking at many options I decided to sell my company to Twitter.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
I joined at a time when the company was growing fast. You kind of did the opposite.
There was a lot going on. The company had a fair amount of issues, but then again, most bigger companies do.
Or even small companies, like Twitter today.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
I wasn't in the first batch. Or the second or third or fourth. I'm not sure which layoff round I was in there were so many of them.
Each one came after you promised the last one was the final one.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
I also contacted HR regularly and asked if my job description was correct or needed updating. I wanted to make sure I was doing what I was supposed to.
They always said they were looking into it but I never got a reply.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
I can however write for an hour or two at a time.
This wasn't a problem in Twitter 1.0 since I was a senior director and my job was mostly to help teams move forward, give them strategic and tactical guidance.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
I hope that helps! Let me know if you are going to pay what you owe me?
I think you can afford it?
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
UPDATE: Elon Musk has since responded
Elon Musk responded to the thread, saying:
“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 work, it turns out he told HR that he couldn’t work because he couldn’t type, but was, over the same period, typing up a storm on Twitter.
Yet there are many people on Twitter defending him. This hurts my faith in humanity.”
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
Correct
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
It remains to be seen where things go from here. Halli is claiming Elon Musk’s Twitter owes him wages still.
Employment lawyers on Twitter are champing at the bit after seeing Elon’s initial replies…
Every employment lawyer on the planet watching Elon disclose an employee's disability, claim he's faking it, and state it was part of why he was fired. pic.twitter.com/DYO3qW0rKG
— Zane Schacht – Voice Goblin 🐀 (@VoicesByZane) March 7, 2023
On one side, we have a former employee who claims he was exhaustively trying to communicate with their manager at Twitter to ensure they were fulfilling any and all responsibilities. Who claims he was then booted from their work computer and couldn’t get a response from HR for 9+ days until Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded and publicly disclosed the person’s disability and said it had prevented the employee from doing work.
On the other side, you have Elon Musk who simply could’ve not responded at all to the employee and instead flagged it to HR. But it was a rough day for Elon Musk who saw Twitter crash because of a single engineer’s decision.