CEO Elon Musk as seen in an illustration.
Illustration by Fernando Capeto for Forbes; Photograph by Taylor Hill/Getty Photos
“He’s fired.”
With these phrases, tweeted simply after 8 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk dismissed a veteran engineer who had publicly questioned his new boss. It took roughly 5 hours for the corporate to disable Eric Frohnhoefer’s entry to his company-issued laptop computer.
When Forbes reached Frohnhoefer by cellphone on Monday afternoon from his dwelling in San Diego, the engineer mentioned he had obtained no formal communications from the corporate in any respect about his sudden dismissal.
“Nope, nothing,” he mentioned. “They’re all a bunch of cowards.”
That Twitter’s new CEO is firing veteran rank-and-file engineers on a whim, in public, is indicative of the horse-in-a-hospital strategy that Musk has taken to operating the corporate.
Within the few weeks since Musk purchased Twitter, he has summarily fired the earlier govt crew, and laid off an estimated 50 p.c of the corporate’s workforce. He has instituted a botched plan to have customers pay $8 for a “verified” account, with no process in place for precise verification. With impersonation plaguing the accounts of public figures and firms, some giant advertisers together with Common Mills and Volvo pulled their {dollars} from the platform. All of the whereas, Musk continues to tweet, performing as each the corporate’s chaos agent, and its self-proclaimed white knight.
Do you’re employed at Twitter? Are you involved about the way forward for your job? Get in contact: Contact Cyrus Farivar at cfarivar@forbes.com or 341-758-0888 on Sign.
The spat between Musk and Frohnhoefer started when Musk tweeted Sunday morning that he wished to “apologize for Twitter being tremendous sluggish in lots of international locations.”
Just some hours later, Frohnhoefer tweeted again: “I’ve spent ~6yrs engaged on Twitter for Android and might say that is unsuitable.”
The 2 obtained in a back-and-forth in a public Twitter thread over technical points regarding the Android app’s efficiency, with Musk at one level asking on Sunday afternoon: “Twitter is tremendous sluggish on Android. What have you ever achieved to repair that?”
Later that day, after one other person chimed in on the thread to admonish Frohnhoefer for criticizing Musk in public, Frohnhoefer responded: “Perhaps he ought to ask questions privately. Perhaps utilizing Slack or e-mail.”
Then on Monday morning, at 8:01 a.m. Pacific Time, a 3rd person piped up: “with this type of angle, you in all probability don’t need this man in your crew.”
“How are you going to perform? Workers don’t belief the brand new administration. Administration would not belief the staff.”
Only one minute later, Musk threw down the gauntlet – “he’s fired” – and Frohnhoefer responded with a saluting emoji.
Frohnhoefer, 41, who has been with the corporate for over eight years, mentioned the tip got here slightly abruptly, proper round 1 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday afternoon.
“My laptop computer simply shut off and now I can’t get again into it,” he mentioned.
Frohnhoefer mentioned he didn’t have a powerful opinion of Musk previous to his arrival at Twitter, characterizing himself as being within the “wait-and-see camp.” However, because the new regime, “it’s gone downhill,” Frohnhoefer famous.
“Nobody trusts anybody inside the firm anymore,” he mentioned. “How are you going to perform? Workers don’t belief the brand new administration. Administration would not belief the staff. How do you suppose you’re imagined to get something achieved? That’s why there’s manufacturing freezes – you may’t merge code, you may’t flip issues on with out permission from VPs.”
The San Diegan added that he stays “involved” for the near-future of the corporate, significantly given how its prime management treats workers.
Earlier than Musk took over, he mentioned, “individuals have been extra open and felt that they might criticize and now that’s clearly not the case,” he mentioned.
In a separate a part of the Twitter thread earlier than the firing, Musk mentioned early Monday that he has “been at Twitter SF HQ all night time. Will likely be working & sleeping right here till org is mounted.”
Twitter, which has disbanded its public relations division since Musk’s takeover, didn’t reply to Forbes’ request for remark. Equally, Musk himself didn’t reply to a request for remark by e-mail.
