Elon Musk wears a fairly marked streak of controversy. Recently, the billionaire was criticized for an alleged manipulation of the cryptocurrency market, something that has cost him a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for a possible case of fraud, and later he was again in the eye of the hurricane for his pulse in the purchase of Twitter , and also due to their demands in terms of working hours and workforce reduction.
As if this were not enough, a new scandal has just emerged that directly affects SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk. According to what we are told from Reuters, five workers of the company were fired for criticizing in an open letter to this and other executives, and for asking them to make the company’s work culture more inclusive. Reuters has confirmed that it has tried to contact SpaceX to clarify the case, but that so far they have received a silence in response.
That letter was circulated among numerous employees, and it seems that it was signed by an unknown amount of workers, so the real number of dismissals could be much higher, although at the moment there are only five confirmed. The exact content of the letter has not been released, but SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell was blunt in criticizing the workers’ actions. In his opinion they have a lot of “critical” work to get done, and they don’t need the kind of “excessive activism” that makes many company employees uncomfortable.
Could it be that they feel uncomfortable because of fear and because they cannot support what they do not dare to say? According to another source, the letter specifically questioned Elon Musk’s behavior in public, calling it a continual source of distraction and embarrassment. The point is that if we delve a little deeper into Musk’s history, we will realize that this letter was not misdirected.
According to a report, Elon Musk had to pay $250,000 to a SpaceX flight attendant for harassing her during a private trip. Yes, she bought his silence, although the company said that all this was a lie. Curious, because Musk comes across as an avid defender of free speech, but it seems only when he cares. For her part, Gwynne Shotwell ended by apologizing for this distraction and telling employees to please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and to do their best during their working hours.
