Bonehead SpaceX Employees Fired After Criticizing Elon Musk

A group of SpaceX employees have allegedly been fired for criticizing Elon Musk in a letter to the board of directors. Mike Papantonio is joined by attorney Michael Bixby to discuss.

Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!

Be sociable! Follow us on:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

A group of SpaceX employees have alleged that they've been fired for criticizing Elon Musk in a letter to the board of directors. Now I gotta tell you, I saw this, I saw this story and I got to thinkin', what numb nut would not believe they're gonna get fired if they send out a letter. They, they sent out thousands of these letters just across the board saying, will you sign the letter now? Whether they're wrong or right, you know, they have a right to criticize him, but they also need to understand he has a right to fire 'em. I mean, what kind of bonehead says, yeah, I'm just gonna go do this and then expect no ramifications from it?
Right. Talk about burying your head in the sand and I think you're exactly right. It's a private company, Pap. So you're talking about, I mean, and you could say, we think the law should be this or that, but the reality is if you go and bite the hand that feeds and here clearly Musk is the hand that feeds with SpaceX, that's of course, that's what's gonna happen. And, and, and, and, and I, now that being said is, honestly, this tells me a lot about the company.
Yeah.
Because I think that there's a couple of responses they could have. I think, yes, you can, you could criticize the SpaceX employees and say, well, you knew you were gonna get fired and if you didn't, you were just completely ignorant. But, but SpaceX's response is not very encouraging, which maybe isn't a surprise if you followed.
Well, as you said, it's a privately held company, Michael. This isn't a, I mean, that, that's what, that's what's so amazing about. Matter of fact, the people who didn't sign it say exactly that. They said what in the, their own employees are saying, well, of course I didn't sign it. It sounds like a childish tone deaf thing to do. You know of, look, there's no question, they have the right to criticize. But then to come out and say, we're victims, because I'm not under contract. If they're, it's a non-contract state. Musk can fire as many of them as he wants. But to say you're surprised by the idea that they, they said that he was an embarrassment to the company that the whole Twitter, the whole element of what was going on with Twitter was an embarrassment to them. And they're talking about the guy who gives 'em their paycheck. Any surprises there?
No, no, no, no surprises there whatsoever. But I do think, you know, there's been things about their culture, SpaceX's culture and Musk.
Yes.
I think that there's legitimate concerns there. But you say, hey, read the room a little bit, in the way you get 'em addressed, or is there a better way to address a toxic environment than that? Yeah. The end result was always going to be those people getting fired.
Yeah. It's just like, they it's like a bunch of tone deaf boneheads that don't understand it's gonna happen. No question. They said, we need to reign him in. Yes. Maybe that's the case. But expect the consequences. There was other ways to go about doing it.

#rof #trofire #theringoffire #progressivenews

[do]

No one can ever criticize employers with impunity unless they are unionized. That's another reason we need unions.

[citizenVader]

Bad leadership begins when criticism is ignored or in this case removed.

[duratoke]

BU-BU-BU BUT NOOO! Not the Free Speach champion!

[waynegnarlie]

Elon's behavior is often childish and embarrassing, and if you don't like it, vote with your feet. Having said that, Elon's insecurities do not inspire me to invest in his companies.

[emiebex]

And this was the guy people were getting on their knees & praying would buy Twitter? 🥴🤣

[Roadrunner]

So much for Elon keeping an open mind to criticism.

[piccalillipit]

*HERE IN EUROPE* he could not fire them for this - we have employee rights...

[platinumdragonslayer]

Considering how many times Elon Muskrat’s vehicles have been recalled from his corner cutting, I would be terrified every time his rocket goes off into space.

[foppishdilletaunt]

Yeah, but Elon is a “free speech absolutist.”
What a daring visionary and the saviour of all mankind
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🥲.

[technologic]

All the more reason to unionize. Engineers have a reason to criticize the company, because as workers they have the ability to make it better.

[deevnn]

Musk is destroying his legacy if he ever had one...and just like so many before him who got rich and became bad
people he has decided to do down that road. I cancelled my Tesla order two months ago.

[jessetorres]

Where are all of the Conservative free speech activists on this?

[ashoka]

all you do is focus on the fact that they should have known they could have gotten fired and not a word on how valid their criticism is or how it clearly shows that elon does not care about free expression when it concerns him or how he actively engaged in union busting so he could preserve that power he had over them

[ericinla]

DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT YOUR BOSS until you after you leave and have another job

[stevesoler]

I appreciate your reporting and insights, but maybe you can report about it with out calling them "boneheads?" We really don't need more people spewing hate and disrespect. Just state the facts and I'm sure you'll get more than enough people chiming in with the insults in the comments.

[eskieguy]

I remember my sister, who worked for a major public corporation at the time, telling me, 'you don't talk outside the family', and she was referring to both, our family, and the corporate family. You could complain about work at home, but that was as far as it went. Apparently someone at SpaceX missed the memo.

[chestercleveland]

Mr free speech Elon musk who was complained about trump being kicked off Twitter musk hollered about it was wrong trump should have had free speech I guess everyone EXCEPT your employees should have free speech huh elon

[michaeldebellis]

I have a friend who is an engineer at Tesla and he’s told me exactly the same stories about how Musk disrupts work by appearing in the workplace and expecting everyone to kiss his butt. I also don’t agree at all that you should expect to be fired for criticizing the boss. I’ve been a boss and the most important lesson the best bosses I had gave me was that a good boss not only is open to alternative views but encourages people to express them. Once you make a decision you expect people to follow it (or talk to you privately) but the process a good boss encourages is one where everyone feels free to express their opinion, especially when they disagree with the person in charge.

[michaelmcginley]

Which person does not understand, Elon Musk is an "Evil Overlord"

[Henbot]

Think it isn't appropriate to call employees that lack power bone heads. The point is more that Elon Musk parades himself as a free speech absolutist, but he is a petty man child that doesn't support the slightest notion.