After the two battled in front of the public over what Musk claimed was the company’s poor experience for Android customers, Elon Musk appeared to have fired one of Twitter’s software employees on Monday.
And it appears that he did it via tweet.
According to internal Slack communications obtained by CNBC, Eric Frohnhoefer, who according to his LinkedIn profile worked at Twitter for more than eight years, reportedly did not get a formal notice of his termination prior to or at the time Musk tweeted about it.
According to the Slack messages, when asked if he learnt of his dismissal through the tweet, Frohnhoefer replied, “News to me.”
Since taking over the company late last month, Musk has had a turbulent run, and the apparent public firing further adds to that. Large portions of the company’s workers were let go by him, and he also managed the platform’s messy rollout-rollout-rollout-rollback of its new paid verification service. He also fought back against detractors.
The rumoured public termination adds to Musk’s turbulent tenure at the company since he assumed control late last month. Large portions of the company’s staff were let go, and he fought back against detractors while directing the platform’s chaotic rollout, rollback, rollout, and rollback of its new paid verification service.
Frohnhoefer challenged a post from Musk on Sunday about why the app had been “extremely sluggish in many places” for people using the Android operating system, which prompted Musk to start a Twitter conversation with Frohnhoefer.
“I have spent ~6yrs working on Twitter for Android and can say this is wrong,” Frohnhoefer tweeted.
Frohnhoefer provided a thorough explanation of the company’s app after Musk questioned what he had done to address the problems with Android, pointing to “features that get little usage,” “tech debt” (a term used by software engineers to describe when something is shipped quickly at the expense of making it efficient), and time spent waiting for “network responses.”
A Twitter user suggested on Monday that Musk might not want Frohnhoefer “on your team” amid the back-and-forth.
Musk responded: “He’s fired.”
