Elon Musk is ‘behaving like the local drunk: Ex-Twitter president criticizes CEO 

A former Twitter executive believes Elon Musk is acting “like the local drunk” at the helm of the social media platform.

Bruce Daisley, a global vice president until January 2020, expressed his distaste for Musk’s leadership to iNewsfocused on the moment when the CEO accused a former employee of using his disability as an ‘excuse’ for not working.

“The more Musk acts like the local drunk — he goes on name-calling with disabled ex-employees — the less current employees will be proud to say they work there,” Daisley told iNews.

The argument involved Halli Thorleifsson, 45, an employee with muscular dystrophy who was fired in February. Thorleifsson tried to get in touch with Musk via Twitter, as he wasn’t sure if he had been fired or not.

Musk later wrote, “The reality is that this man (who is independently wealthy) was not doing any real work, claiming as an excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, but was tweeting up a storm at the same time. I can’t say I have much respect for that.’

“But was he fired?” he added. “No, you can’t get fired if you weren’t working.”

The statement explicitly addressed Musk’s comments about a former employee who is disabled. Musk tweeted that this employee used his disability as an excuse not to work

The argument involved Halli Thorleifsson, 45, an employee with muscular dystrophy who was fired in February. Thorleifsson tried to get in touch with Musk via Twitter, as he wasn’t sure if he had been fired or not

Musk apologized a day later for questioning Thorleifsson’s job performance.

Daisley also criticized the billionaire for the massive layoffs.

Twitter now has a workforce of less than 2,000, up from 7,500 when Musk took over in October.

“It’s kind of like the character in the cartoon who runs off the cliff but doesn’t immediately fall,” Daisley told iNews.

“Initially, many commentators were willing to say that the Twitter business was full of slackers, Elon had laid off 75% of its employees, and it was still going strong.

“Well, Wile E. Coyote has looked down and realized gravity applies to him, too.”

Daisley’s comments come less than a month after Twitter’s latest round of layoffs in which Musk laid off an additional 200 employees.

Thorleifsson had thought he was one of the unlucky 200, sharing in a tweet that nine days after the layoffs were announced, Twitter’s chief of human resources had still not been able to confirm whether [he] employee or not” and that Musk had not replied to his emails

The day after employees were notified, Musk tweeted, “Hope you’re having a good Sunday. First day of the rest of your life.’

Last month’s cuts targeted product managers, data scientists and engineers, including product manager and Musk enthusiast Esther Crawford, who spearheaded the launch of paid subscription service Twitter Blue.

Musk told employees at a meeting in late November that there were no more plans for staff reductions.

At the time, Musk defended the decision to lay off 3,700 people, saying, “There is no choice if the company is losing more than $4 million a day.”

Defending the decision, he said all those laid off were offered three months’ severance pay, “50% more than required by law.”

But staff suspected another wave of cuts was coming this month after they suddenly lost access to their Slack channel in late February.

Thorleifsson had thought he was one of the unlucky 200, sharing in a tweet that nine days after the layoffs were announced, Twitter’s chief of human resources had still not been able to confirm whether [he] employee or not” and that Musk had not replied to his emails.

He decided to talk to Musk himself (via Twitter), prompting Musk to reply. “What work have you done.”

The exchange continued as Musk accused Thorleifsson of using his disability as an excuse.