Elon Musk Denies Ever Scolding Employee Over Missing A Work Event To Witness Child’s Birth

elontwitThe news cycle was abuzz yesterday with quotes from a new book about Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk, particularly one from an anonymous employee who said he’d been chastised for missing a work event in order to be present at the birth of his child. Musk fired back on Twitter today, denying he ever said any such thing.

The Washington Post and other media outlets reported on author Ashlee Vance’s book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, including one particular email an employee said he’d received from Musk after missing something major at work when his kid was born:

According to the book, the email from Musk read: “That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. 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 took issue with that excerpt as well as claiming that he’d never called himself a samurai, another tidbit included in WaPo’s round-up.

The controversy has echoes of Tim Armstrong at AOL in 2014, who found himself backtracking on changes to the company’s benefits plan that he’d blamed on two workers who’d had “distressed babies.”

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