- A Twitter director said it took him nine days to find out if he was fired or not.
- Haraldur Thorleifsson said he emailed Elon Musk and Twitter HR but got no response.
- In the midst of a Twitter spat at Musk, Thorleifsson said he had received confirmation that he had lost his job.
A senior Twitter employee said he spent nine days trying to figure out whether or not the social-media company had fired him.
Haraldur Thorleifsson, a former director of Twitter based in Iceland, publicly sparred with Elon Musk on Monday after the Twitter owner was asked about his employment status at the company.
“You have the right to fire me,” said Thorleifsson in a tweet of Musk. “That’s perfectly fair and fine. But usually people are told when that happens. Maybe in a letter or something. Which hasn’t happened in 9 days despite many emails to you and others.”
Three minutes after the tweet was posted, Thorleifsson SAYS he received confirmation that he was no longer employed by Twitter. “Again, that’s completely within your rights,” he said. “No complaints. But can you make sure I can pay my debt?”
In another tweetThorleifsson said Twitter’s head of HR emailed to tell him he was fired.
Twitter and Thorleifsson did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
On Monday, Thorleifsson tagged Musk in a tweet said he lost access to his work laptop nine days ago but could not confirm whether he had been fired or not. Thorleifsson said Twitter’s head of human resources failed to confirm twice whether he still worked there, and that he emailed Musk about the matter but got no response.
Musk later responded to Thorleifsson’s tweet and said: “What job do you do?” This sparked a fractious back-and-forth between Thorleifsson and Musk.
Thorleifsson founded Ueno, a creative agency that was bought by Twitter in 2021. According to Thorleifsson’s LinkedIn profile, after the acquisition, he worked as a director of Twitter based in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Platformer reported on February 28 that Thorleifsson was one of four senior managers placed on the “do not fire” list because it was too expensive to pay. The four were still fired, the report said.
The four are among approximately 200 Twitter workers cut in the latest round of layoffs, according to Platformer. Musk has cut thousands of Twitter staff since completing his $44 billion acquisition of the company in October.
Like Thorleifsson, other former Twitter employees who were laid off said they were locked out of their work laptops and email amid layoffs.