Elon Musk apologises after mocking laid-off Twitter employee, questioning his incapacity

For those who’re not advised you might be fired, are you actually fired? At Twitter, most likely.

Haraldur Thorleifsson, who till just lately was employed at Twitter, logged in to his laptop final Sunday to do some work — solely to seek out himself locked out, together with 200 others.

He may need figured, as others earlier than him have within the chaotic months of lay-offs and firings since Elon Musk took over the corporate, that he was out of a job.

As a substitute, after 9 days of no reply from Twitter as as to if or not he was nonetheless employed, Mr Thorleifsson determined to tweet at Mr Musk to see if he may catch the billionaire’s consideration and get a solution to his “Schrödinger’s job” scenario.

“Perhaps if sufficient folks retweet you will reply me right here?” he wrote on Monday.

Ultimately, he obtained his reply after a surreal Twitter alternate with Mr Musk, who proceeded to quiz him about his work, query his incapacity and marvel why he wanted particular lodging.

“The truth is that this man (who’s independently rich) did no precise work, claimed as his excuse that he had a incapacity that prevented him from typing, but was concurrently tweeting up a storm,” Mr Musk wrote at one level.

“Cannot say I’ve quite a lot of respect for that.

“Was he fired? No, you may’t be fired in the event you weren’t working within the first place!” he later added.

Mr Thorleifsson, who goes by “Halli”, makes use of a wheelchair as a result of muscular dystrophy, which additionally impacts his skill to sort for greater than an hour or two at a time.

His function below Twitter’s earlier administration was that of a senior director offering steering to groups of employees, somewhat than a hands-on product designer.

Whereas the alternate was happening, Mr Thorleifsson stated he obtained an e-mail that he was now not employed.

Late Tuesday afternoon, nevertheless, Mr Musk had a change of coronary heart.

“I want to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his scenario. It was based mostly on issues I used to be advised that have been unfaithful or, in some instances, true, however not significant,” he tweeted.

“He’s contemplating remaining at Twitter.”

Mr Thorleifsson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark following Mr Musk’s tweet.

In an earlier e-mail, he referred to as the expertise “surreal”.

“You had each proper to put me off. However it might have been good to let me know!” he tweeted to Mr Musk.

Mr Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has about 151,000 Twitter followers (Mr Musk has over 130 million).

He joined Twitter in 2021, when the corporate, below the prior administration, acquired his startup Ueno.

He was lauded in Icelandic media for selecting to obtain the acquisition value in wages, somewhat than a lump sum payout.

That is as a result of this fashion, he would pay greater taxes to Iceland in help of its social providers and security internet.

And Mr Thorleifsson’s subsequent transfer?

“I am opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik very quickly,” he tweeted. “It is named after my mother. Like many mothers she was the very best mother on this planet.”

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark.

AP/ABC