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SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

nytimes.com

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Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#461

Post by onelovetwo »

enumjorge wrote: post #202
onelovetwo wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's at his lowest point in the eyes of the media (which is how most of us see the world) but hes actually at the highest point in his career and achievements. Tesla is about to explode in production with their "biggest building in the world factory" in texas, berlin and china. SpaceX is about to achieve the holy grail of the space industry (an affordable and reusable rocket) not to mention Starlink.

> in the eyes of the media Everyone can see his tweets, public statements and interviews. Musk is doing a great job embarrassing himself without the help of “the media”.

and a lot think hes the only person with common sense in the tech/business world.

I'd like to know though, what statement do you think is "embarrassing"?

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#462

Post by matthewdgreen »

axg11 wrote: post #110

This is a very predictable consequence of criticizing your employer via a public letter. Criticize internally all you want, and influence the changes that you want to see happen. Employment is a two-way relationship. If you don't like your employer, you are free to leave. If they don't like you, they are free to fire you (within legal bounds). Publishing an openly critical letter and signing it is a quick way to get…

I assume that everyone who signed on to this letter understood the likely consequences and accepted them — because they understood their firing would massively amplify any workplace concerns by turning it into national news and making SpaceX employees mistrustful of management. This is the problem with being predictably retributive: once everyone understands how you work, your behavior can be exploited.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#465

Post by ctvo »

j_walter wrote: post #453

Based on what management said it wasn't necessarily what was in the letter, but the behavior surrounding the formation of the letter and soliciting people to sign it. Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use and intimidation of their peers.

> Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use and intimidation of their peers.

Knowing that this would be leaked and make news, they could have framed the letter to all employees in the best possible way for the company (both PR and HR). Let's hold out and see what SpaceX insiders and the fired employees actually say.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#467

Post by smaryjerry »

deltaonefour wrote: post #294
axg11 wrote: post #110

This is a very predictable consequence of criticizing your employer via a public letter. Criticize internally all you want, and influence the changes that you want to see happen. Employment is a two-way relationship. If you don't like your employer, you are free to leave. If they don't like you, they are free to fire you (within legal bounds). Publishing an openly critical letter and signing it is a quick way to get…

Yeah this is true. But also the employer publicly firing those who sent the letter without some form of discussion also looks really really bad. People have an expectation of a CEO to have a really "mature" and controlled temperament.

This reminds me of those tiktok videos that have a spouse complaining about their significant other. They complain in public about whatever behavior, typically insignificant things, I think you can search like cleaning strike and see some of them. Even if it was 100% true, the people come of as petty, rude and disrespectful for publicly a private matter that makes then the bigger asshole. That is between spouses and has caused divorces and between coworkers or a boss employee relationship I would expect nothing less than the employee to be fired.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#468

Post by jcranmer »

mft_ wrote: post #458
JaimeThompson wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they actually believed his statements regarding unlimited free speech. It's not backed by evidence but SpaceX does attract dreamers.

I don’t think any definition of free speech guarantees total freedom from repercussions?

Isn't that the definition of free speech that Musk wants for Twitter?

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#469

Post by Qem »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #445
nsxwolf wrote: post #438

I can't imagine trashing my CEO and expecting to keep my job. Maybe that's a Gen-X thing?

Maybe they actually believed his statements regarding unlimited free speech. It's not backed by evidence but SpaceX does attract dreamers.

He means soviet-style free speech. People were free to share opinions. The party was free to book them a ticket to the nearest gulag.

Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk

#470

Post by yanderekko »

enumjorge wrote: post #225
daenz wrote: post #118

>The letter asked SpaceX management to publicly separate the company from Mr. Musk’s personal brand, and to take steps to address what it said was a gap between SpaceX’s stated values and its current systems and company culture. >“Blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable,” S…

It would be unexpected for a company run by a free speech absolutist.

I don't think anyone actually believes that a "free speech absolutist" would tolerate, say, an employee shouting racial slurs in the office through a megaphone. I guess this is supposed to be a "gotcha" about free speech absolutism, but if you're attacking a definition of the term that no one would actually endorse, then maybe it's not a good "gotcha"...
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