The employee had to tag Elon Musk on Twitter to find out what his status was in the company.
A senior Twitter employee claimed to have spent 9 days trying to find out whether or not the company had fired him.
Haraldur Thorleifsson I had to find out through emails, calls and even tweets if he was still an employee of Twitter, since he had not had access to the company’s systems for days. He even had to tag Elon Musk himself to get the information.
Fired from Twitter or not?
Thorleifsson was on the “don’t fire” list because it was too expensive to pay them severance pay. He created Ueno, a creative agency that Twitter ended up buying in 2021. After that, he worked as the company’s director in Iceland.
Through a direct tweet to Elon Musk , he noted that “he had lost access to his laptop for nine days, but could not confirm if he had been fired or not.” He also added that the head of Human Resources was unable to give him the answer to the query on two occasions.
Musk responded to Thorleifsson’s tweet, saying, “What work have you been doing?” in a mocking tone.
Dear @elonmusk 👋
9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.
However your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You’ve not answered my emails.
Maybe if enough people retweet you’ll answer me here?
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 6, 2023
“You have every right to fire me,” Thorleifsson said in a response to Musk. “That’s totally fair and correct. But usually people are told when that happens. Maybe with a letter or something. Which didn’t happen for 9 days despite multiple emails we sent him to you and others”.
Three minutes after posting the tweet, Thorleifsson said he had received confirmation that he no longer had a job at Twitter . “Again, that’s totally within your rights,” he said. “I have no complaints. But can you make sure they pay me what they owe me?” Finally, the head of Human Resources wrote him an email to tell him that he had been fired.
To be clear. You have every right to lay me off. That’s totally fair and fine.
But usually people are told when that happens. Maybe with a letter or something.
Which didn’t happen for 9 days despite multiple emails to you and others.
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 7, 2023
layoffs
Haraldur Thorleifsson was one of the last 200 employees made redundant in the latest round of cuts.
They all agree that the way they find out if they are fired or not is by not being able to access their laptops and work emails.