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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

#11

Post by qayxc »

ralfd wrote: post #9
blitzar wrote: post #2

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

.

That's not a left or right issue - it's simply a fact of life.

Example: you are free to verbally shit all over your boss and company in public; just don't expect to work there for much longer.

Another example: you are free to call the 1.93m thug who bumped into you a blind idiot, just don't expect to face no physical consequences for exercising your right to give him a piece of your mind.

It's funny how some people try and make this a political issue when it's really not and never has been.

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

#12

Post by checker »

blitzar wrote: post #2

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

It certainly sounds hypocritical if you're willing to play liberties with the definition of free speech. However, free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences of such speech. The audience can respond any way they like without infringing on the speaker's rights (and it's not a right to work at SpaceX).

These employees should have expected this reaction; Musk doesn't seem like the type to pass up executing his right to impose consequences. Hopefully they were prepared and have achieved some of the impact they were hoping for.

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

#13

Post by qayxc »

Denvercoder9 wrote: post #8

> We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism. This seems like a funny statement to make when your CEO is literally out buying Twitter.

> This seems like a funny statement to make when your CEO is literally out buying Twitter.

And apparently putting 90+ hours into Elden Ring, while still insisting to be working 14-20 hour days. [0]

[0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1528576711209766914

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

#14

Post by checker »

ralfd wrote: post #9
blitzar wrote: post #2

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

.

The audience can respond any way they like without infringing on the speaker's rights or breaking any laws. It's not a right to work at SpaceX and it's not illegal to fire employees with cause.

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

#15

Post by Dylan16807 »

checker wrote: post #12
blitzar wrote: post #2

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

It certainly sounds hypocritical if you're willing to play liberties with the definition of free speech. However, free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences of such speech. The audience can respond any way they like without infringing on the speaker's rights (and it's not a right to work at SpaceX). These employees should have expected this reaction; Musk doesn't seem like the type to pass up executing his ri…

He has most definitely been arguing against consequences as part of it. You know, like getting banned on twitter.

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

#16

Post by numair »

The most disgusting fact I learned in this article is that Shotwell personally backed Musk on denying claims he sexually harassed the flight attended. What?

Anyone who knows these people and their friends knows that the situation as described in the media was not out of the realm of possibility. Unless Shotwell, COO of SpaceX, was on that plane and witnessed exactly what happened, she is not qualified to assist in burying someone’s totally insane traumatic experience.

My fellow HN readers, the space startup scene is growing fast. Don’t work for a CEO/COO that is willing to throw any and everyone else under the bus to ensure they can continue to collect their own multi-billion dollar paycheck for “making the world more connected.” This has shades of Sheryl Sandberg all over it — and we know how that worked out for society.

The government needs to work harder to build competition against these people, and regulators need to be a lot more careful about allowing them to blast all of their crap into space.

I would guess we are a few years away from some former SpaceX employees with exit liquidity revealing the dirty truth as a means of handling their own PTSD.

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

#17

Post by pydry »

checker wrote: post #12
blitzar wrote: post #2

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

It certainly sounds hypocritical if you're willing to play liberties with the definition of free speech. However, free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences of such speech. The audience can respond any way they like without infringing on the speaker's rights (and it's not a right to work at SpaceX). These employees should have expected this reaction; Musk doesn't seem like the type to pass up executing his ri…

>However, free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences of such speech.

Except when that consequence is being banned from twitter, apparently.

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

#18

Post by uejfiweun »

Here's my unpopular opinion - good riddance. It's not a free speech issue because SpaceX isn't a public square. It's a company, and companies are top down. If these employees are at Musk's company, then they had better be prepared to play by Musk's rules, and they did the exact opposite, essentially leading a mutiny against the boss and sowing discord within the company in the process. SpaceX isn't an activist organization and has no obligation to kowtow to the demands of internal activists. Not all companies are like this, but again, you should know what you're signing up for when you join a Musk company.

And I'd also be willing to bet cash that all these employees were very low level, likely new hires out of college, and are all of the political activist type. Because for all his bluster, Musk really hasn't done anything THAT objectionable besides openly shit on Democrats. (No, I don't believe the bogus sexual assault allegation from an anonymous friend of a friend, there's no evidence).

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

#19

Post by cloutchaser »

numair wrote: post #16

The most disgusting fact I learned in this article is that Shotwell personally backed Musk on denying claims he sexually harassed the flight attended. What? Anyone who knows these people and their friends knows that the situation as described in the media was not out of the realm of possibility. Unless Shotwell, COO of SpaceX, was on that plane and witnessed exactly what happened, she is not qualified to assist in bu…

Indeed, if you don’t want to work for musk, go work for bezos and build rockets for him.

I for one think the timing of the sexual claim makes it obvious it’s political, but no one has to work for musk.

So leave if you want to, if musk is so offensive. Not everyone company is an ESG obsessed multinational.

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

#20

Post by szundi »

uejfiweun wrote: post #18

Here's my unpopular opinion - good riddance. It's not a free speech issue because SpaceX isn't a public square. It's a company, and companies are top down. If these employees are at Musk's company, then they had better be prepared to play by Musk's rules, and they did the exact opposite, essentially leading a mutiny against the boss and sowing discord within the company in the process. SpaceX isn't an activist organi…

If you go to work to a small unknown company, you can feel surprised what you get.

Working for Musk - no. You already knew everything.

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