SpaceX Drops the Hammer, Reportedly Fired Employees Involved in Letter Rebuking Elon Musk

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell shared with the New York Times that the employees involved with a letter that disparaged the CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk have been fired.

The Times reported, “Shotwell’s email said employees involved with circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel “uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views”.

The letter which was shared publicly was titled, “an open letter to the Executives of SpaceX”.

In the letter’s body, the employees express their embarrassment over the CEO, writing, “Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks.” This doesn’t highlight what they are embarrassed about and is just a general statement.

The letter continued, “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.”

According to The Verge, the letter was written by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal “Morale Boosters” group chat, that thousands of employees are a part of it was then made public.

Musk is now facing backlash from those who believe the firing of the employees contradicts his “Free Speech” push for Twitter. As Musk has pointed out Twitter is a town hall and that is why he is calling for it to be open for “Free Speech”. SpaceX is his private company, most people know there is a format for expressing your complaints within a company, in a way that it can be addressed privately.

Musk held a meeting with Twitter employees Thursday, to share his vision for the future of the company. Many of the employees seemed unhappy with the messaging from Musk. This, however, comes as no surprise as there have been rumors, that many employees are considering quitting if Musk is successful in his Twitter takeover.

Benny Johnson shared comments from employees’ reactions to Musk’s message that had been released by Project Veritas.

“BREAKING: Leaked Internal Slack Messages Show Twitter Employees Reaction to @ElonMusk‘s #TwitterAllHands Call”

BREAKING: Leaked Internal Slack Messages Show Twitter Employees Reaction to @ElonMusk‘s #TwitterAllHands Call pic.twitter.com/VMZ1Uoxu4E

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 16, 2022

Musk is pushing back on much of the progressive liberal messaging, and is also facing much backlash for doing so.