Elon Musk is targeting the Twitter employee by claiming he used his disability as an excuse

Elon Musk took aim at a disabled employee on Twitter on Monday who tagged him in a tweet to ask if he was being laid off.

Haraldur Thorleifsson, who has a form of muscular dystrophy called dysferlinopathy and uses a wheelchair, chirp at the CEO of Twitter on Monday to say that access to his work computer has been cut off.

“However, your head of HR is unable to confirm whether or not you are employed. You have not responded to my emails,” Thorleifsson wrote. “Maybe if enough people retweet you’ll answer me here?”

Musk replied, asking Thorlevson what work he does for the company. Thorleifsson confirmed in the thread that he finally heard back from HR and He no longer works at Twitter.

On a Twitter post with screenshots of the stock exchange, Musk claimed Thorleafsson “didn’t do an actual job” and used his disability as an excuse.

“The truth is, this (independently wealthy) man did no actual work, and claimed as an excuse that he had a writing disability, yet at the same time tweeted up a storm,” Musk wrote. “I can’t say I respect that much.”

in another place tweetMusk said Thorleifsson couldn’t be fired because “you couldn’t be fired if you weren’t working in the first place!”

Thorleifsson responded to the CEO with a string of his disability, which he says put him in a wheelchair 20 years ago.

“At the time the rest of my body was failing me too,” he wrote. “I need help getting in and out of bed and using the toilet.” “I thought for a long time that my arms would still be strong. A doctor told me they would. But they ended up losing their strength. Which, I don’t mind telling you, was hard to accept.”

The exchange comes as Musk did He reportedly continued to lay off employeeswhich has reduced the company’s staff since taking over in October.

according to their websiteThorleifsson, who is originally from Iceland and was Voted person of the year in the country in 2022I started a design company called Ueno about nine years ago.

wrote Thorlevson in a letter tweettargeting rumors that the Musk family owns an emerald mine.

Twitter acquired Thorleifsson in 2021, a move he said wasn’t the best financial decision. He also addressed Musk’s allegations that he used his disability as an excuse not to write, which he said was classified health information he told HR.

“I’ll tell you what I told them. I’m not able to do manual labor (which in this case means typing or using a mouse) for long periods of time without my hands starting to cramp,” he wrote. “But I can write for an hour or two at a time.”

Thorleifsson ended the matter by asking the Twitter CEO if he would pay him what he owed.

“I think you can bear it?” he books.

Thorleifsson and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.