‘Grow up, Elon’: Netizens are not amused by Musk’s latest tweet about rehiring staff

Important to admit when I’m wrong & firing them was truly one of my biggest mistakes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022

‘Ligma’ and ‘Johnson’ made news when they pretended to be former Twitter employees who were sacked following Twitter’s official acquisition by Elon Musk on October 27. Both of them got media attention as they appeared in front of Twitter headquarters with cardboard boxes that supposedly held their office supplies and even gave media bytes. Musk also responded to their prank by tweeting screenshots of media reports featuring them and wrote, “Ligma Johnson had it coming ”.

Ligma Johnson had it coming 🍆 💦 pic.twitter.com/CgjrOV5eM2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

Musk’s latest tweet, which alluded to the reports of Twitter’s messy firing and rehiring saga, is not being taken well with many netizens criticising him for being insensitive to thousands of employees who were fired with little-to-no notice.

Is it just me who finds this ‘bit’ a little creepy and uncool given the actual 7000+ people you did fire in the last couple of weeks? Feels Ike you’re mocking people you’ve fired. Certainly it’s not going to make Bay Area technologists more keen to work with you.

— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) November 15, 2022

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that pretending to bring back the people you pretended to fire when you’re getting backlash for firing people over criticisng you is a pretty bad PR strategy. https://t.co/OO8ibQdbfT

— Braden 🏺 (@BradenIsBased) November 15, 2022

I would like to apologize for firing these geniuses. Their immense talent will no doubt be of great use elsewhere.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022

Musk’s doing canned jokes – meanwhile in TX workers at Tesla filed a complaint with the Dept of Labor over unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions https://t.co/CFRtakSNB6 https://t.co/uIVKmJlbXc

— David Griscom (@DavidGriscom) November 16, 2022

This is so gross and dehumanizing to the people he actually fired. Grow up, Elon. https://t.co/P6Hq0z3uFC

— first of all, bitch, … (@thejournalista) November 15, 2022

pic.twitter.com/k8dMFmCuD8

— Kook; KSJ1 👨🏻‍🚀 ★ (@jinniesthv) November 15, 2022

Twitter’s new board of directors pic.twitter.com/B3owufUwxt

— Fintwit (@fintwit_news) November 15, 2022

Let’s just be blunt – do you think it’s okay to mock and laugh at thousands of people losing their jobs six weeks before the holidays? I mean yes or no is fine.

— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) November 15, 2022

Ligma and Johnson walking into Twitter HQ past the rows of actual employees fearing for their jobs pic.twitter.com/Cd6nRWlH8t

— alexjm 🍿 the blue roo 🦘 (@alexjmingolla) November 15, 2022

Criticising the business magnate, a Twitter user wrote, “This is so gross and dehumanizing to the people he actually fired. Grow up, Elon.” Another person remarked, “Is it just me who finds this ‘bit’ a little creepy and uncool given the actual 7000+ people you did fire in the last couple of weeks? Feels Ike you’re mocking people you’ve fired. Certainly it’s not going to make Bay Area technologists more keen to work with you.”

Last week, Twitter fired almost 90 per cent of its India staff. Before that, it laid off approximately 3,700 employees. This fast-paced mass firing was soon followed by Twitter reaching out to dozens of employees to rejoin the work as their job termination was deemed a mistake. According to reports, the social media company has most recently terminated 80 per cent of its contract employees without giving them any notice.