Insider published a report last month about a former flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself and propositioning her for sex in 2016 and to whom the company paid $250,000 to stay quiet. Musk immediately labeled the story a politically motivated hit piece, while the president and COO of the company came to Musk's defense.
The new Insider report puts Shotwell and every other executive inside Musk's companies in a very uncomfortable position.
According to the story, Musk quietly had twins with one of his top executives. In order to have their father's last name and mother's last name included in their middle name, Musk, 51, and Zilis, 36, filed a petition to change the twins' names. A judge in Austin approved the order this May. The twins were born a few weeks before Musk and his wife had another child.
A person acting on her behalf has removed any mention of Neuralink from a website about her background.
Until recently, that same page stated that the work experience of Zilis, a Yale graduate who began her career at IBM, then invested on behalf of the Bloomberg-backed venture outfit, was Neuralink.
All three of them have close ties to Musk, who founded Neuralink, co founded OpenAI and assumed leadership of the company in 2008.
According to Insider, Zilis first met Musk in 2016 when she was a director at OpenAI.
She worked as a project director for the electric car company.
The title of director of operations and special projects for Neuralink is held by Zilis.
Insider says that Zilis used to work in the CEO's office.
According to the outlet, Zilis is one of the people Musk could use to run the micro-messaging service after he buys it.
Insider's account has not been verified. Meanwhile, Musk, who is typically highly active on Twitter and who did not respond to requests for comment from Insider, is remaining mum for now, though he did say last month that falling birth rates in the U.S. are a "demographic disaster"
I mean, I’m doing my part haha
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2022
Whether any of these companies have fraternization policies that prohibit romantic relationships between a manager and a reporting staff member is the biggest question the story raises.
While most companies prohibit dating relationships between employees who are separated by two levels in the chain of command, Musk doesn't follow the standard rules.
Even if Neuralink,Tesla and OpenAI don't have policies in place to prevent fraternization, it's a huge distraction and it could open up the companies to massive lawsuits.
It is likely that it is not looked on kindly by the U.S. government.
The reported development makes the board of directors at Musk's companies look suspiciously relaxed and puts defenders like Shotwell in a difficult position of having to assure employees that Musk shares their same ethics. She is going to do that tonight.
She has to write that next company email.
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