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Haraldur Thorleifsson, who until recently was employed at Twitter, logged in to his computer last Sunday to do some work — only to find himself locked out, along with 200 others.
Instead, after nine days of no answer from Twitter as to whether or not he was still employed, Thorleifsson decided to tweet at Musk to see if he could catch the billionaire’s attention and get an answer to his Schrödinger’s job situation.
“Maybe if enough people retweet you’ll answer me here?” he wrote on Monday.
Eventually, he got his answer after a surreal Twitter exchange with Musk, who proceeded to quiz him about his work, question his disability and need for accommodations (Thorleifsson has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair) and tweeted that Thorleifsson has a “prominent, active Twitter account and is wealthy” and the “reason he confronted me in public was to get a big payout.”
While the exchange was going on, Thorleifsson said received an email that he was no longer employed.
Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has about 141,000 Twitter followers (Musk has over 130 million).
He joined Twitter in 2021, when the company, under the prior management, acquired his startup Ueno.
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He was lauded in Icelandic media for choosing to receive the purchase price in wages rather than a lump sum payout.
That’s because this way, he would pay higher taxes to Iceland in support of its social services and safety net.
Thorleifsson tweeted to Musk that “The reason I asked you in public is because you (or anyone else at Twitter) didn’t reply to my private messages.”
The alternative designs of the Sydney Opera House that could have been
“You had every right to lay me off. But it would have been nice to let me know!” he added.
Thorleifsson’s next move: “I’m opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik very soon,” he tweeted. “It’s named after my mom.”
