Elon Musk fires Twitter staff who pushed back, says: I'd like to apologise for firing these geniuses

He said their talents are of great use elsewhere.

Belmont Lay| November 17, 2022, 06:27 PM

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Elon Musk took to Twitter on Tuesday, Nov. 15 to mock employees he had fired for criticising him publicly and privately.

He wrote:

I would like to apologize for firing these geniuses. Their immense talent will no doubt be of great use elsewhere.

Context

Musk had continued cutting Twitter’s work force in his third week of gaining ownership of the social media company.

Those he fired included contractors, as well as employees who had criticised him.

The New York Times reported that Musk's team ordered nearly two dozen Twitter employees who had pushed back publicly and privately against him to be fired.

They were sacked on Monday, Nov. 14.

Those let go were informed via email that their "recent behavior has violated company policy," Business Insider reported.

Twitter did not specify why they were fired, NYT reported, but multiple reports suggested it was due to their criticism of Musk in internal Slack chats and public posts on Twitter.

His tweet mocking former employees he let go was in response to a tweet announcing the firings.

More context

Musk has moved fast to reorganise Twitter internally.

NYT reported that he wants to eliminate middle managers.

At the same time, he sent employees a brief message on Nov. 14, explaining that "exceptional amounts of stock would be awarded for exceptional performance".

Musk likened the structure to how things worked at SpaceX, his private rocket manufacturer.

Before this round of firings, Musk fired a veteran Twitter engineer who publicly disagreed and argued with Musk about why the app is slow on Android.

Top photo via Elon Musk Twitter