SAN FRANCISCO: If you’re not told you’re fired, are you really fired? Hour Twitter, perhaps. And then, sometimes, you can get your job back – if you want to.
Haraldur Thorleifssonwho until recently worked at Twitter, logged on to his computer last Sunday to do some work – only to find himself blocked along with 200 others.
Like many others before him, he may have been thinking in chaotic months dismissal and Elon Musk was fired after taking over the company.
Instead, after nine days of no response from Twitter about whether he was still on the job, Thorleifsson decided to tweet Musk to see if he could get the billionaire’s attention and get an answer on Schrödinger’s employment status.
“Maybe if enough people retweet, you’ll reply to me here?” he wrote on Monday.
He finally got his answer after a surreal Twitter exchange with Musk, who asked him about his job, questioned his disability and need to stand (Thorleifsson, who goes by “Halley,” has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair), and tweeted. Thorleifsson “has a well-known, active Twitter account and is wealthy” and “the reason he confronted me publicly was to get a big payout.” While the exchange was underway, Thorleifson said he received an email saying he was no longer working.
By Tuesday afternoon, Musk had a change of heart.
“I want to apologize to Hallie for misunderstanding her situation. It’s based on things that are either untrue to me or in some cases true but make no sense,” he tweeted. “He’s considering staying on Twitter.”
Thorleifsson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment after Musk’s tweet. In an earlier email, he called the experience “surreal.”
“You had every right to fire me. But it would be nice to let me know!’ – he wrote to Musk.
Torleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has 151,000 Twitter followers (Musk has more than 130 million). He joined Twitter in 2021, when the company acquired his startup Ueno with previous management.
He was praised in the Icelandic media for choosing to receive the purchase price in the form of a salary rather than a lump sum payment. This is because he would be paying higher taxes to Iceland to support his social services and safety net.
Thorleifsson’s next move: “I’m opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavík soon,” he tweeted. “It’s named after my mother.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a message for comment.
Haraldur Thorleifssonwho until recently worked at Twitter, logged on to his computer last Sunday to do some work – only to find himself blocked along with 200 others.
Like many others before him, he may have been thinking in chaotic months dismissal and Elon Musk was fired after taking over the company.
Instead, after nine days of no response from Twitter about whether he was still on the job, Thorleifsson decided to tweet Musk to see if he could get the billionaire’s attention and get an answer on Schrödinger’s employment status.
“Maybe if enough people retweet, you’ll reply to me here?” he wrote on Monday.
He finally got his answer after a surreal Twitter exchange with Musk, who asked him about his job, questioned his disability and need to stand (Thorleifsson, who goes by “Halley,” has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair), and tweeted. Thorleifsson “has a well-known, active Twitter account and is wealthy” and “the reason he confronted me publicly was to get a big payout.” While the exchange was underway, Thorleifson said he received an email saying he was no longer working.
By Tuesday afternoon, Musk had a change of heart.
“I want to apologize to Hallie for misunderstanding her situation. It’s based on things that are either untrue to me or in some cases true but make no sense,” he tweeted. “He’s considering staying on Twitter.”
Thorleifsson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment after Musk’s tweet. In an earlier email, he called the experience “surreal.”
“You had every right to fire me. But it would be nice to let me know!’ – he wrote to Musk.
Torleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has 151,000 Twitter followers (Musk has more than 130 million). He joined Twitter in 2021, when the company acquired his startup Ueno with previous management.
He was praised in the Icelandic media for choosing to receive the purchase price in the form of a salary rather than a lump sum payment. This is because he would be paying higher taxes to Iceland to support his social services and safety net.
Thorleifsson’s next move: “I’m opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavík soon,” he tweeted. “It’s named after my mother.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a message for comment.
