Elon Musk apologizes after mocking, questioning incapacity of Twitter worker who wished to know job standing

In the event you’re not advised you’re fired, are you actually fired? At Twitter, in all probability. After which, typically, you get your job again — if you’d like it.

Haraldur Thorleifsson, who till lately was employed at Twitter, logged in to his laptop final Sunday to do some work — solely to search out himself locked out, together with 200 others.

He may need figured, as others earlier than him have within the chaotic months of layoffs and firings since Elon Musk took over the corporate, that he was out of a job. As an alternative, after 9 days of no reply from Twitter as as to if or not he was nonetheless employed, Thorleifsson determined to tweet at Musk to see if he might catch the billionaire’s consideration and get a solution to his Schrodinger’s job state of affairs.

“Your head of HR isn’t capable of verify if I’m employed or not,” he wrote on Monday. “Perhaps if sufficient folks retweet you may reply me right here?” 

Finally, he bought his reply after a surreal Twitter alternate with Musk, who proceeded to quiz him about his work and query his incapacity and wish for lodging.

Thorleifsson, who goes by “Halli,” has muscular dystrophy and makes use of a wheelchair. Musk went on to tweet that Thorleifsson has a “distinguished, energetic Twitter account and is rich” nothing that the “purpose he confronted me in public was to get an enormous payout.”

Whereas the alternate was occurring, Thorleifsson mentioned he obtained an e mail telling him that he was now not employed at Twitter.

Late Tuesday afternoon, nonetheless, Musk had a change of coronary heart.

Musk apologizes for ‘misunderstanding’

“I want to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his state of affairs. It was primarily based on issues I used to be advised that have been unfaithful or, in some instances, true, however not significant,” he tweeted. “He’s contemplating remaining at Twitter.”

Thorleifsson didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark following Musk’s tweet. In an earlier e mail, he referred to as the expertise “surreal.”

“You had each proper to put me off. However it will have been good to let me know!” he tweeted to Musk.

Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has about 151,000 Twitter followers. He joined Twitter in 2021, when the corporate, beneath the prior administration, acquired his startup, Ueno.

He was lauded in Icelandic media for selecting to obtain the acquisition worth in wages fairly than a lump sum payout. That is as a result of this fashion, he would pay greater taxes to Iceland in assist of its social companies and security internet.

Thorleifsson’s subsequent transfer: “I am opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik very quickly,” he tweeted. “It is named after my mother.”

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark.