Find one online letter written by SpaceX employees, openly criticism towards the recent behaviors of the CEO Elon Musk. The letter, signed by an unspecified number of company workers, would be delivered to presidente Gwynne Shotwell. And he declares Musk’s behavior “source of distraction and embarrassment “.
SpaceX employees criticize Elon Musk’s behavior
The Verge reporters took care of making the letter public, explaining how the letter was published in a chat system within the company. Where would he receive the support of employees “of various kinds, ethnicities, seniority and technical roles“In the company.
The letter is not at all subtle. “Elon’s behavior in the public sphere was frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, especially in the last few weeks. As our CEO and prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX. Every tweet Elon sends is a de facto public announcement from the company. It is essential to make it clear to our teams and potential incoming talents that his message does not reflect our work, our mission, our values ”.
The letter comes from a chat with over 2,600 SpaceX employees on Microsoft Teams. However, the number of signatories (who could answer a survey or scan a QR to join) is not currently known. However, The Verge notes that over a hundred comments followed the open letter, with many employees supporting the positions expressed.
What they ask of the company
According to the open letter, SpaceX employees who have criticized Elon Musk’s behavior think that the company should adopt three behaviors to deal with the situation.
- SpaceX should “publicly comment condemning Elon’s harmful behavior on Twitter ”.
- “far climband to all management the same consequences“In case of inappropriate behavior.
- SpaceX must “clearly define what it means by policy ‘nobody-idiot’ (no-asshole in English, ed) iszero tolerance’ for harassment and strictly enforce it.
Musk recently faced public criticism after Business Insider revealed that SpaceX would pay in 2018. $ 250,000 to settle a flight attendant complaint. Who accused Musk of having himself stripped on a private jet of the company. Musk had proven wrong saying they were all politically motivated charges. “If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, it would be unlikely this was the first time in my 30-year career that it was known.”
The president Gwynne Shotwell commented saying she trusts Elon, saying that “anyone who knows Elon like me knows he would never practice or forgive this allegedly inappropriate attitude.” SpaceX employees wonder, however, whether the company would have accepted a similar statement from another executive.
The behavior of Elon Musk and the criticisms of SpaceX employees
While the reference to the harassment allegations seems pretty clear in the letter, Musk’s “tweets” that SpaceX employees complain about in the open letter are many, especially since he announced his intention to buy the social network for 44 billion dollars.
They range from simple vulgarity, like when he recently posted a picture of Bill Gates and an emoji of a pregnant woman with the words “for when you need to get rid of an erection fast”. Or when he commented on Jeff Bezos’ rival Blue Origin saying he “can’t get it up (into orbit) lol”.
But the SpaceX CEO’s controversial positions range from his stance against it smart workingto the criticisms of the rainbow logos during the Pride Month, up to the sentence on “there will be no more Italians”. The fact that Tesla and SpaceX are so closely tied to Musk, according to many analysts affects the share value of the two companies. Both positively and negatively: emblematic case the loss of value of the shares of the two companies after the accusations of harassment.
In addition to an ethical and style evaluation, it therefore appears that employees are evaluating the economic stability factor in writing this letter. SpaceX for the moment has not commented on it and Elon Musk neither. We will keep you posted.