Elon Musk apologizes for surreal conversation with former employee

Having bought Twitter more than four months ago and fired half the staff, Elon Musk is still making an impression. He became the protagonist of a public exchange on a microblogging platform that Haraldur Toleifsson described as “surreal”. This former Icelandic-born platform employee challenged the Twitter boss to clarify his professional position at the company: “Dear Elon Musk, access to my work computer was disabled nine days ago, along with about 200 other Twitter employees. However, your HR manager cannot confirm if I am an employee or not,” wrote one who calls himself Halley, referring to the quirky billionaire in a tweet that went viral. To date, it has actually been viewed more than 34 million times since it was posted on Monday.

“What job have you done?” Elon Musk finally asked a few hours later on Tuesday. Then the senior director of product design listed the tasks performed on the social network. “We haven’t hired a manager for four months. What changes have you made to help young people?” – Elon Musk reacted sharply to finally laugh at him by posting two emoji crying with laughter.

When asked by a netizen who called the exchange the most “funny of the firing interviews”, Elon Musk called Hallie, who has muscular dystrophy, an impostor: “The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) didn’t do any real work, stated as an excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, but simultaneously tweeted a lot. I can’t say that I respect it very much.” It turns out that Halle founded the creative agency Ueno, which was acquired by Twitter in 2021. After a viral exchange let him know that he had indeed been fired, the former employee wanted to make sure that the amount owed to him under the contract would be paid to him.

“I would like to apologize to Hallie for misunderstanding her situation. It was based on things I was told that weren’t true or in some cases were true but didn’t matter. He plans to stay on Twitter,” the Twitter boss finally tweeted on Wednesday, indicating he spoke to him via video link. “It’s better to talk to people than to tweet,” says Elon Musk.