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 Schroedinger'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 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 received an email that he was no longer employed.
Late Tuesday afternoon, however, Musk had a change of heart.
"I would like to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful," he tweeted. "He is considering remaining at Twitter."
Thorleifsson did not immediately respond to a message for comment following Musk's tweet. In an earlier email, he called the experience "surreal."
"You had every right to lay me off. But it would have been nice to let me know!" he tweeted to Musk.
Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has about 151,000 Twitter followers (Musk has over 130 million). He joined Twitter in 2021, when the company, under the prior management, acquired his startup Ueno.
He was lauded in Icelandic media for choosing to receive the purchase price in wages rather than a lump sum payout. That's because this way, he would pay higher taxes to Iceland in support of its social services and safety net.
Thorleifsson's next move: "I'm opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik very soon," he tweeted. "It's named after my mom."
Twitter did not immediately respond to a message for comment.
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French authorities said four migrants, including a two-year-old child, died Saturday in two separate incidents as they attempted to cross the English Channel toward Britain.
A rural Colorado county courthouse beefed up security Friday after threats were made against staff and a judge who sentenced former county clerk Tina Peters to nearly nine years behind bars for her role in a data breach scheme catalyzed by the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeatedly reiterated calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East on Saturday as he blamed Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel for a staggering number of civilian deaths.
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Bruzzese came down with COVID-19 in February 2023, and received her injection at the end of March. “Being able to recognize smells is something we take for granted, until you can’t.â€
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TikToks of customers stuffing their faces with a US$20 endless shrimp. More than 100 restaurant closures and thousands of layoffs. A revolving door of CEOs. Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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A northeastern Ontario jury has started deliberating in Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard's sexual assault trial, we can now tell you what they weren't allowed to hear.
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A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
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