SpaceX employees complaining about Elon Musk reportedly fired for 'overreaching activism'

SpaceX has reportedly fired a number of employees who complained about Elon Musk’s public behaviour in an open letter. This comes just a day after reports about the company employees posting a letter on the company's Microsoft Teams channel calling Musk's Twitter activities a "source of distraction and embarrassment" emerged.

However, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell rejected the demand to condemn "Elon’s harmful Twitter behaviour" and criticised the letter calling it "overreaching activism".

'Use your time for your best work': SpaceX President

In a company-wide mail sent by Shotwell, she advised her employees to stay focused on the forthcoming missions and encouraged them to use their time at work productively. In the mail shared by The Verge, Shotwell wrote that the letter pressurised the employees to "sign onto something that did not reflect their views" and acknowledged the complaints from some employees of being distracted from their work. 

Noting that the aerospace firm has three satellite launch missions lined up in the next 37 hours, Shotwell listed everything that's on SpaceX's plate including astronaut launches and Starship's first orbital flight.

"We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism", she addressed her employees. Shotwell further said that the company's current leadership is the most dedicated to providing an "ever-improving work environment" than ever. "We performed an investigation and have terminated a number of employees involved", she revealed. 

SpaceX employees unhappy with Musk's behaviour

While it was not known exactly how many employees were involved in preparing the letter sent to the SpaceX President, the anonymous workers reportedly said that it came from those "across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority, and technical roles".

The letter stated that as the face of SpaceX, Musk's tweets are automatically assumed to be a statement by the company. "It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values". This was likely fuelled after the allegation made against Musk for his alleged misbehaviour with a flight attendant.