Elon Musk Performs Bizarre Public Exit Interview with Twitter Worker Left in the Dark by Company

A senior Twitter employee recently took to the platform to ask Elon Musk directly if he had been fired after being locked out of his work accounts and ignored by Twitter HR. After being left in the dark by his employer, Halli Thorleifsson went through a bizarre public exit interview with the company’s new CEO.

BBC News reports that a Twitter employee recently took to the social media platform to ask Elon Musk directly if he had been fired after his access to his work accounts were denied and he received no information from Twitter’s HR department on his employment status.

Halli Thorleifsson, the founder of the design firm Ueno which was purchased by Twitter in 2021, told the BBC: “I opened my computer on Sunday morning nine days ago and saw that the screen was grey and locked, indicating that I had been locked out of my Twitter accounts. After a few days had passed I started reaching out to people, including Elon and the head of HR to ask about my situation. The head of HR has since twice emailed me and has not been able to answer whether or not I am an employee at Twitter.”

After failing to receive a reply from HR, Thorleifsson took to Twitter to ask Musk directly about his employment status:

Dear @elonmusk 👋

9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.

However your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You’ve not answered my emails.

Maybe if enough people retweet you’ll answer me here?

— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 6, 2023

Musk responded by asking Thorleifsson what he does at the company:

What work have you been doing?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023

Thorleifsson listed his responsibilities and accomplishments at the company including major design projects and organization at Twitter, hiring managers for design roles, leading design reviews in order to improve design across the company, and saving Twitter $500,000 on one of its SaaS subscriptions for the industry-standard design software Figma.

Musk responded to this with two laughing emojis:

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023

Shortly after this exchange, Thorleifsson stated that Twitter’s Human Resources department had contacted him to say that he had been fired. Musk replied to another user accusing Thorleifsson of not doing any work at the company. Musk stated:

“The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm. Can’t say I have a lot of respect for that.”

Thorleifsson, a well-known developer from Iceland, sold his design firm Ueno to Twitter in early 2021. Thorleifsson told BBC News: “I decided to sell for a few reasons but one of them is that I have muscular dystrophy and my body is slowly but surely failing me. I have a few good work years left in me so this was a way to wrap up my company, and set up myself and my family for years when I won’t be able to do as much.”

Thorleifsson stated that he now worries that Musk will not honor his employment contract. “This is extremely stressful. This is my retirement fund, a way to take care of myself and my family as my disease progresses. Having the richest man in the world on the other end of this, potentially refusing to stand by contracts is not easy for me to accept,” he said.

He added: “Companies let people go, that’s within their rights. They usually tell people about it but that’s seemingly the optional part at Twitter now.”