Elon Musk Denies Scolding Employee For Skipping Work To Witness Birth Of Child
(CBS SF) -- Elon Musk shot down claims from a new book that he criticized an employee for missing work to attend the birth of his child.
On Twitter Tuesday, the Tesla CEO said "it is total BS & hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child's birth just to attend a company meeting. I would never do that."
It is total BS & hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child's birth just to attend a company meeting. I would never do that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2015
Musk is referring to a quote in the new book "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" by Bloomberg technology reporter Ashlee Vance which features a series of anecdotes about the entrepreneur. But Musk says at least two of them, including claims he chided his employee over missing work, are inaccurate.
"That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed," an anonymous employee claims Musk wrote to him over email. "You need to figure out where your priorities are. We're changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don't."
Musk also attacked another so-called quote to a potential investor that said, "My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail."
The Washington Post featured both of those statements in a story featuring the most memorable quotes from the new book, but on Tuesday added a note that Musk has "since called this inaccurate."
Of 22 Quotes from http://t.co/VA2KQ03NNR, 2 need correcting:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2015
1. I strongly support pregnancy leave
2. I've never called myself a samurai
People chimed in on Twitter with a mix of responses.
One person jokingly wrote, "what if the baby was a Tesla?"
Another said, "Elon, don't this on here. It won't help."
According to book's summary on Amazon, Vance spent more than 30 hours in conversation with Musk and interviewed nearly 300 people to tell the story about the man behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity.