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 telephone on Monday afternoon from his residence 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 unconventional method that Musk has taken to working the corporate.
Within the few weeks since Musk purchased Twitter, he has summarily fired the earlier government workforce, 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 corporations, some massive advertisers together with Basic Mills and Volvo pulled their {dollars} from the platform. All of the whereas, Musk continues to tweet, appearing 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 gradual in lots of international locations.”
Just some hours later, Frohnhoefer tweeted again: “I’ve spent ~6yrs engaged on Twitter for Android and may say that is incorrect.”
The 2 acquired in a back-and-forth in a public Twitter thread over technical points in regards to the Android app’s efficiency, with Musk at one level asking on Sunday afternoon: “Twitter is tremendous gradual on Android. What have you ever executed to repair that?”
Later that day, after one other consumer 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 electronic mail.”
Then on Monday morning, at 8:01 a.m. Pacific Time, a 3rd consumer piped up: “with this type of perspective, you most likely don’t need this man in your workforce.”
“How will you operate? Staff don’t belief the brand new administration. Administration does 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 fairly 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 robust 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 throughout the firm anymore,” he mentioned. “How will you operate? Staff don’t belief the brand new administration. Administration does not belief the staff. How do you assume you’re presupposed to get something executed? 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, notably given how its prime management treats staff.
Earlier than Musk took over, he mentioned, “individuals had 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 evening. Might be working & sleeping right here till org is fastened.”
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 electronic mail.
