A group of SpaceX employees reportedly wrote a letter to the company’s executives that detailed frustrations over recent behavior and public statements from the company’s founder and chief executive, Elon Musk.
According to The Verge, the publication that viewed and first reported the letter’s existence, employees referred to Musk’s behavior as a “distraction and embarrassment” for SpaceX employees.
“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter reportedly states. “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission or our values.”
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Employees also urged the company to “publicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior.”
The number of signatures on the letter was not immediately known, and was not reported in The Verge’s story.
The letter was not exclusively about Musk, the report said, as it also called for the company to hold leadership accountable for making SpaceX a great place to work, and respond to forms of unacceptable behavior at the company, reportedly invoking SpaceX’s “no-asshole” policy.
Representatives from SpaceX and Musk did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s requests for comment on this story.
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The reported letter from SpaceX employees comes weeks after Insider reported a sexual misconduct allegation against Musk from a former SpaceX flight attendant in 2018. Musk has denied the claims and called the allegation “utterly untrue.”
The richest man in the world, who is also the CEO of EV company Tesla TSLA, -8.54%, is in the throngs of a massive deal to purchase Twitter TWTR, -1.66%. Musk has said the Twitter deal “cannot move forward” without clarity regarding bots on the platform, but Twitter has stated it is committed to original terms of the merger
“We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms,” Twitter said in a June statement.
Musk addressed Twitter employees at a Thursday all-hands meeting, and said his takeover may lead to job cuts, that he doesn’t like remote work, and that he is a fan of “not boring” platforms like TikTok and WeChat.
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Shares of Tesla Inc. dropped 8.5% during Thursday’s trading, compared to a 2.4% drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.42% and a 3.4% dip for the S&P 500 Index SPX, -3.25%.
Musk’s “harmful Twitter behavior
ondemn what was described as Mr. Musk’s “harmful Twitter behavior” in order to separate the company from his personal brand.
Some employees of SpaceX wrote a letter raising concerns and frustration over Chief Executive Elon Musk’s recent public statements and behavior, describing them as a source of embarrassment and distraction.