SpaceX employees sacked over Elon Musk letter

SpaceX employees have been fired after penning an open letter complaining about CEO Elon Musk.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, also criticiced the letter as “overreaching activism.”

First reported by The Verge, the open letter described the tech billionaire’s behaviour as a constant cause “of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks.”

The letter also references SpaceX’s “No Asshole” policy and asks the company to “address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior” publicly.

“As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company,” said the letter writers.

They also wrote that Musk’s “messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”

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On Thursday afternoon, a number of the letter writers were sacked, as noted in an email from Shotwell and viewed by The Verge.

Word of the firing was first reported by The New York Times.

Within the email, Shotwell confirmed the “termination of a number of employees” involved in creating the letter.

“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 wrote.

She also said that the company has “too much critical work to accomplish,” and there was “no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”

Shotwell added: “Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.”

Musk has been a bit unpredictable for a while but has since proposed the acquisition of Twitter in April.

The $44bn deal has yet to be finalised, and his behaviour has garnered more attention.

In May, Insider reported that SpaceX paid a flight attendant $250,000 after Musk allegedly exposed himself to her and propositioned her.

He denied the allegations, and later joked about the moment on Twitter and told another user, “if you touch my wiener, you can have a horse.”

Indy100 reached out to SpaceX for comment.

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