Elon Musk apologizes after mocking laid-off Twitter employee

• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

If you're not told you are fired, are you really fired? At Twitter, probably. And then, sometimes, you get your job back ? if you want it.

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.

He might have figured, as others before him have in the chaotic months of layoffs and firings since Elon Musk took over the company, that he was out of a job.

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 Schrodinger'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, who goes by "Halli," has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair) and tweet 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 he received an email that he was no longer employed.

Late Tuesday afternoon...