SpaceX employees say they were fired for criticizing Elon Musk in open letter

theguardian.com

11 pointsnigerian19814 comments

What did they expect? Employee activism like this can be disruptive to the company’s mission and coworkers. Not sure why management would allow it.

Their expectations have been set by what has been tolerated at other tech companies over the past decade. If employees at Google can make the CEO kneel before their activism, why not at SpaceX? As more companies discover that their strategy of quieting down activist short term by placating their demands leads to much larger long term issues, we'll see more pushback and astonished outrage from those accustomed to always getting their way.

Maybe a little more nuance? Some company cultures are very open and welcome critique. Other company cultures are downright authoritarian.

You're welcome to do what you want. To the extent it aligns with corporate culture, it may produce the results you want. But if it's outside the cultural norms... well, maybe you're the bomb-throwing revolutionary that changes everything, or maybe you're just fired.

This is spot on. It went too far and now people make the shocked pikachu meme face when companies react negatively to their antics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com