Another day, another controversy on Twitter. Yesterday it became known that the tycoon fired an engineer from the social network through a tweet in a decision that did not go unnoticed. And the story now adds a new chapter, since Eric Frohnhoefer, the employee in question, charged against Elon Musk and his entourage, and treated them as cowards.
In an interview with Forbes, Frohnhoefer gave details of the soap opera that broke out after the public exchange with the new owner of Twitter, which led to his abrupt departure. Asked if he had received formal confirmation of his dismissal, his response was blunt: “No, nothing. They are a bunch of cowards”.
As if his dismissal through a tweet from Elon Musk was not enough, the engineer assured that Twitter took away access to his systems without saying a word. “My computer shut down and now I can’t use it again,” explained the engineer. In fact, last night he shared a tweet with a photo of his locked Mac and wrote: “I think it’s official now”, referring to the end of his link with the social network.
The other striking fact is that Elon Musk seems to have deleted the tweet in which he mentioned that Eric Frohnhoefer had been fired. Knowing the previous legal problems that the tycoon has had due to his compulsive tweeting, it would not be strange that he had to delete it to avoid greater evils. Although the story has all the seasonings to end in a new lawsuit.
Elon Musk and the chaos of Twitter: chapter 1,000
Like everything related to Elon Musk, the firing of Eric Frohnhoefer has provoked reactions on both ends. Let’s remember that the situation arose from a tweet from the businessman complaining and apologizing for the slowness of Twitter in some countries, a publication that the engineer refuted in his personal profile.
The situation quickly escalated until a third party mentioned to Musk: “With this kind of attitude, you probably don’t want this guy on your team,” to which the millionaire replied: “You are fired”.
Some Twitter users were quick to target Elon Musk for exposing an employee in this way, while others targeted the engineer for not reporting the situation privately. “Maybe he should ask things internally, using Slack or email,” Frohnhoefer responded to a criticism, again taking aim at the businessman.
The truth is that it was not an isolated situation. It is true that the behavior of the tycoon in this whole situation is, to say the least, questionable; but the engineer also did the part of him. In the previous weeks, he had used his profile to mock Elon Musk’s strategy and publish memes against the businessman. So yesterday could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
An undesirable situation, anyway, and that the protagonists could have avoided. But it also reveals the chaos that has been going on inside Twitter since Elon Musk took over.
Eric Frohnhoefer himself assured Forbes that he doesn’t see a promising outcome for Twitter any time soonunder this dynamic. “Nobody trusts anyone within the company anymore. How can you function? The employees don’t trust the new management. The management doesn’t trust the employees. How do you think you’re supposed to do something? That’s why it freezes the production [de nuevas funciones y características]. You can’t merge the code, nor can you activate things without the permission of the VPs,” she asserted.