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Comment by j_walter | Hacker News Reader

Based on what management said it wasn't necessarily what was in the letter, but the behavior surrounding the formation of the letter and soliciting people to sign it. Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use and intimidation of their peers.

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> Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use and intimidation of their peers.

Knowing that this would be leaked and make news, they could have framed the letter to all employees in the best possible way for the company (both PR and HR). Let's hold out and see what SpaceX insiders and the fired employees actually say.

No doubt they could have done it better, but all we know right now is the contents of the letter. What we don't know is how they went about soliciting signatures and so called surveys of employees (likely management won't release this detailed information either). The fired employees won't tell you what really happened...more than likely they will play the victims in this. The details may only come out once a lawsuit is filed.

I'm not sure I totally believe that. But loud, public, insubordination is a fire-able offense in most companies. Create bad PR for your company = ticket to firing. Even in the companies that pretend that isn't true, they would still fire you if your "call out" wasn't socially sanctioned.

> using company resources for personal use and intimidation of their peers

That sounds like their CEO.

He doesn't intimidate his peers, he intimidates his lessers.

It's conservatism in a nutshell. The end game is a class of people protected by the rules, but not bound by them, and another class that's bound by them, but not protected.

“For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

> Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use

Concerted activity at work regarding working conditions is protected by US labor law.

> and intimidation of their peers.

Speculation.

That activity is protected, but not during working hours and using company resources (ex. you can't use internal email to spam the entire company with pro-union information).

That's not speculation, it's quoted by the SpaceX president...it may not be true, but it's not speculation.

Imagine you are an asshole and then make the above comment ^

Imagine.

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