CAPE CANAVERAL: Are you really fired if you are not informed? Probably on Twitter. Then, if you want it, you might get your job back in some cases.
Last Sunday, Haraldur Thorleifsson, who used to work at Twitter, tried to do some work on his computer, but he and 200 other people were locked out.
In the chaotic months of layoffs and firings since Elon Musk took over the company, he may have assumed, like others before him, that he was out of a job.
Instead, Thorleifsson decided to tweet at Musk to see if he could get an answer to his Schrödinger's dilemma regarding his employment status after waiting nine days for a response from Twitter.
"Maybe you'll respond to me here if enough people retweet?" Monday, he wrote.
Thorleifsson, who goes by the name "Halli," has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair. Musk then tweeted that Thorleifsson has a "prominent, active Twitter account and is wealthy" and that the "reason he confronted me in public was to get a big payout." In the end, he received his response after a surreal Twitter exchange with Musk. Musk then proceeded to question Thorleifsson about his work, question his disability, and Thorleifsson claimed that he received an email informing him that he was no longer employed while the conversation was going on.
However, late Tuesday afternoon, Musk changed his mind.
I'd like to apologise to Halli for misinterpreting his circumstance. He tweeted, "It was based on things that were either false or, in some cases, true but not meaningful." He is contemplating staying on Twitter.
After Musk's tweet, Thorleifsson did not immediately respond to a message for comment. He previously referred to the experience as "surreal" in an email.
"You were entitled to fire me. However, it would have been nice to be informed! He sent Musk a tweet.
Compared to Musk, Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has approximately 151,000 Twitter followers. He joined Twitter in 2021 after the company acquired his startup Ueno from the previous management.
The Icelandic media praised him for opting to receive wages rather than a one-time payment for the purchase price. This is because he would raise taxes to support Iceland's social services and safety net.
The next move by Thorleifsson: In the near future, I will open a restaurant in the heart of Reykjavik," he tweeted. It bears my mother's name.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment right away.
