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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

#531

"Stay focused" is a little funny from the guy behind the SpaceX flamethrower, Neuralink, OpenAI, the Boring Company, and a $40B attempt to buy Twitter.

That wasn't from Elon....it was from Shotwell (SpaceX president).

In that case, "FW: Yes, you too"

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

#532
I mean, this whole bruhaha was spearheaded by five (5!) people. Articles were presenting this as if it had been representative of a larger portion of the workforce there. I think companies are realizing "activist" workers are a disruption that suck productivity from a company and are taking steps to dial that down, including progressive stalwarts like Netflix.

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

#533

I'm picturing Apple employees writing an open letter criticizing Steve Jobs and saying they don't want him to be the face of the company, or Amazon employees saying they don't want Jeff Bezos to be the image of the company, or GE employees saying they don't want Jack Welch to be tarnishing the brand of the company, or...just about any other big corporation. The CEO's job involves, among other things, being the public…

> If you're not on the board of directors, the way you register displeasure with your CEO is to leave the company. Or you write a letter to the board, those responsible for the situation.

Yeah, the idea that employees can't criticize a CEO is patently ridiculous. There are plenty of companies with compelling products and talent, but poor leadership. Those companies would be lucky to have employees willing to speak up.

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

#534

To those arguing that this letter is tantamount to insubordination and is therefore a fireable offense: “Insubordination (noun)- refusing to obey orders from someone in authority.” [1] Unless they had received direct orders not to criticize Musk at all, internally or externally, they are not guilty of refusing to obey orders. And if they had received such orders, that only adds to Musk’s burgeoning reputation for pet…

THat's not how the term "insubordination" is used in the context of employment.

Insubordination also might be "Directly questioning or mocking management decisions". [1]

Another example: 5 insubordination in the workplace examples [2]

  1. Refusal to complete a task
  2. Refusal to come into work
  3. Refusal to remain at work
  4. Disrespecting authority figures
  5. Sabotaging team or organizational activities
[1] https://www.upcounsel.com/insubordination-in-the-workplace

[2] https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/insu...

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

#535

I'm picturing Apple employees writing an open letter criticizing Steve Jobs and saying they don't want him to be the face of the company, or Amazon employees saying they don't want Jeff Bezos to be the image of the company, or GE employees saying they don't want Jack Welch to be tarnishing the brand of the company, or...just about any other big corporation. The CEO's job involves, among other things, being the public…

Or you write a public open letter, accepting the risk it might cost you your job but deciding that it is your highest leverage option to enact the change you want to see. What’s your point, exactly..?

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

#536

Twitter is the worst thing to happen to Musk. The social media addiction knows no class/age/wealth/religious/creed boundary. It’s like social cancer that slowly destroys your relationship to society. Musk has done great things but these days I think he’s at his lowest point. /I’ve said this about three times now in threads like these.

Worst thing? His influencing is central to his success. Unfortunately for civil discourse, it’s more effective to create controversial messaging that resonates with your followers, than sanitized messaging that is generally inoffensive. Controversial messaging makes your supporters increasingly loyal and attentive, as the noise from vocal ‘haters’ just keeps feeding your base. It’s perverse, it’s toxic, it’s exhausti…

This is such an astute and concise description of one of the reasons we're currently living in this bizarro world. It can be applied across American culture, to both sides of the political divide, and even brands are beginning to do this.

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

#537

To those arguing that this letter is tantamount to insubordination and is therefore a fireable offense: “Insubordination (noun)- refusing to obey orders from someone in authority.” [1] Unless they had received direct orders not to criticize Musk at all, internally or externally, they are not guilty of refusing to obey orders. And if they had received such orders, that only adds to Musk’s burgeoning reputation for pet…

[deleted]

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

#538

I've owned TSLA stock for over a decade, and I believe in the company, but I find Musk increasingly distasteful. If I had sold the last time it was over $1,000... of course that's the silly wishful thinking we all do in a contraction/correction, but goddamn, I want him out of my life. I've already sold some of it, just to assuage my conscience a little (as well as lock in some of my profits). The next good opportunit…

Maybe I've read to much history, or maybe I just need to pay more attention to Musk, but I'm pretty sure he isn't anywhere close to the category of "Terrible Human Being" I have in mind - even for the West.

He's not guilty of genocide, or even murder, so there's certainly much higher bars that can be set.

But I have a deep aversion to trolls. They cause pain deliberately. That pain is diffuse and hard to account, but so widespread that (a little bit) times (a lot) adds up to a large number. And I think it's pretty clear that Musk enjoys inflicting pain on people.

Perhaps that's too low a bar to set for the title of "terrible human being". But that's my bar, and he sails right over it. I tried to ignore it for a very long time, and I'm not sure how much longer I can.

He's also running a company that is making enormous strides in getting the world off of fossil fuels -- and pushing others to do the same. (I have quibbles with continuing the multiple-cars-per-household lifestyle, which I think will need to be reconsidered if we're going to stabilize our effect on the environment, but at least he's doing something -- and it includes reducing fossil fuels in areas besides transportation.)

And he's running a company that is revolutionizing space transport. I don't believe in his goals there, but I think good will come of it. He's doing it for real, not just running his mouth off.

And yet, on balance, he's contributing to an American social climate which keeps nudging closer to literal civil war. You probably think that's hyperbolic, and perhaps it is, but it's undeniable that its making a lot of people angry a lot of the time. He's in a position to know better, and it looks to me as if he enjoys it. To me, that merits the designation "terrible human being".

You can legitimately disagree with that, but I think we can agree on the reasons I say it.

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

#539
post #527

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 Concerted activity at work regarding working conditions is protected by US labor law. > and intimidation of their peers. Speculation.

That activity is protected, but not during working hours and using company resources (ex. you can't use internal email to spam the entire company with pro-union information).

That's not speculation, it's quoted by the SpaceX president...it may not be true, but it's not speculation.

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

#540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't it an internal letter that was leaked? I mean sure, being leaked is a predictable consequence, but it may be a distinction with a difference if the criticizers didn't themselves leak it. Regardless, will be interesting to see how this plays out. If I were one of those employees, I'd be talking to a lawyer. If I was one of the employees still working at SpaceX, I'd be talking about a union. We recently unionize…

Getting fired for insubordination isn't a protected class. The former employees don't have a case.

We're not slaves anymore. You as a human being are allowed to express your thoughts and opinions. Would we know how awful it was at Activision/Blizzard if those employees had not said something? Elon and C-Suite execs own and control everything, no need to bootlick.
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