Elon Musk apologizes to laid-off Twitter worker who was Iceland’s individual of the yr in 2022

Haraldur “Halli” Thorleifsson, from the Icelandic capital Reykjavík, took to Twitter over the weekend to find out his employment standing after discovering he had been locked out of his Twitter account, interesting on to CEO Musk.

“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?” tweeted Thorleifsson.

Responding to Thorleifsson on Tuesday throughout Twitter, Musk proceeded to pepper him with questions on his position at and contributions to the corporate, an change that critics described as poisonous (the complete back-and-forth is summed up on this tweet by Alex Cohen).

It was throughout his public dialogue with Musk that the Iceland native, described on an his private web site as having a genetic muscular atrophy referred to as Dysferlinopathy, mentioned Twitter’s human-resources division had confirmed to him that he was now not employed. But Musk’s subsequent tweet drew much more ire:

Thorleifsson had instructed Musk that his incapacity had reached some extent at which he couldn’t do “manual work without (which in this case means typing or using a mouse) for extended periods of time without my hands starting to cramp.”

Later Tuesday, Musk tweeted an apology, saying he “did a videocall with Halli to figure out what’s real vs what I was told. It’s a long story. Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet.”

On his Twitter account Wednesday, Thorleifsson made no direct remark about whether or not Musk had been correct in saying a Thorleifsson return to Twitter was on the desk, joking: “Well, that’s enough about me.” He mentioned his subsequent transfer could be to open a restaurant:

Thorleifsson is seen as one thing of a hero in Iceland, the place he was named 2022 individual of the yr by a number of media shops. He joined Twitter in 2021 after it purchased out his firm, the inventive company Ueno, for an undisclosed quantity, and drew reward for selecting to take the payout in wages, over a extra tax-friendly possibility of shares or different monetary property.

“Halli, however, gladly paid the higher tax rate, having spoken publicly on many occasions about the benefits he has received from the Icelandic social system,” mentioned the Icelandic Review in a Jan. 23 article, which described the numerous philanthropic pursuits of “Iceland’s benevolent tech titan.”

The articled famous Thorleifsson’s Ramp Up Iceland program, which has constructed tons of of ramps throughout the nation to assist wheelchair-using individuals corresponding to himself acquire higher entry.

Some speculated that Musk’s change of coronary heart might have come from the conclusion that the social-media firm could be on the hook to pay out the rest of Thorleifsson’s contract, because of the association stipulating the sale worth could be paid out in wages:

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a MarketWatch request for additional remark.

Musk has laid off hundreds of staff since taking on at Twitter late final yr, leaving roughly 2,000 from an unique 7,500. He instructed a Morgan Stanley convention on Tuesday that Twitter may quickly be cash-flow constructive.

Following a restoration in shares of electric-car maker Tesla
TSLA,
-2.88%,
of which he’s CEO, Musk’s wealth has climbed $37.2 billion to date in 2023, making him the world’s second richest individual, with a complete internet price of $174 billion, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.