Engineers were invited to a meeting at the headquarters of the rocket manufacturer. The subject of the conversation was the company's founder and CEO.
The day before, the company had moved to fire five employees who wrote a letter calling on the company to condemn the behavior of Mr. Musk, who used the social network to make light of a sexual harassment claim against him. Some managers and executives indicated that they did not condone Mr. Musk's behavior, so several of the engineers filed into the meeting expecting a sympathetic ear.
According to two employees in attendance, the meeting quickly became heated.
The vice president leading the meeting declared that the writers had been fired for taking on Mr. Musk and that the letter was an "exploding act". The two employees said that the chief executive didn't seem to know if he could sexually harass his workers. The meeting had a recurring theme of Mr. Musk being able to do whatever he wanted at the company.
The two recalled hearing Mr.Edwards say that the two were both called SpaceX and SpaceX.
According to the employees and their lawyers, the firing of nine workers was caused by the letter from the company. The National Labor Relations Board filed unfair-labor-practice charges on Wednesday on behalf of eight workers who were fired.
There is little tolerance for dissent or labor organizing at Mr Musk's companies.
The electric car manufacturer, which is run by Mr. Musk, has resisted unionization attempts at its factories and is currently being sued by workers who said they were not given adequate warning before being laid off.
Mr. Musk laid off half of the employees at the time of his acquisition of the company. Dozens of critics were fired this week after subordinates combed through internal and public communications of employees of the social media site.
Interviews with the eight employees who filed charges show that Mr. Musk has a firm hold on his workplace. The six employees who spoke for fear of reprisal are not identified in the labor board filing.
The law that gives workers the right to come together for mutual aid or protection most likely protects the writing of the letter, which was addressed to Mr. Musk.
The engineer who was fired in June after helping to organize the letter effort said it was difficult to believe what was happening. It feels like an employee has protection.
The former employees did not get a response from the three companies.
Many of the 11,000 employees who work at the company do so because of the mission. The company was founded in 2002 and is headed by Mr. Musk.
Several of the former employees who filed the labor charges said that their chief executive distracted them. Mr Musk dislikes politicians and government agencies that have say over federal contracts.
The culture seems to tolerate sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
A former employee wrote an essay about being harassed and groped at work. When she reported the incidents, there was no follow-up. Other employees began speaking up about predatory behavior by male colleagues after the essay was published.
The company started an internal audit of its harassment policies after some employees said they were male-dominated.
The company paid $250,000 to a flight attendant after she accused Mr. Musk of exposing himself and propositioning her for sex. The episode never happened, Mr. Musk said on the social networking site. Several employees said in interviews that they were appalled when Mr Musk joked about the accusations.
Many employees said they had considered Shotwell to be an ally.
One of the engineers who were fired had a lot of respect for her. I would watch what she did.
After Ms. Shotwell sent a companywide email saying she did not believe the accusations against Mr. Musk, several employees said their view of her deteriorated further. She has been working with him for 20 years and has never heard of the allegations. CNBC reported that the email was sent.
Employees started working on an open letter within a few days.
Some participants wanted to convey a desire to work with executives on a solution despite their frustration. The rocket maker requires managers to receive training on how to discourage union activity, and the employees did not want executives or other colleagues to see their effort as the beginning of a union campaign.
"Any time someone mentioned something or shared something from an actual labor union, I was like, 'Hey, let's save that for another conversation.'"
Only a few dozen employees saw one of the occurrences on the workers personal software. The other happened on a platform where workers came up with ideas.
The company should make it clear that Ms. Shotwell's email did not represent the views of every employee, according to one proposal.
Ms. Shotwell was sympathetic even though she had been treated unfairly. She wrote on the internal work platform that she appreciated reading and hearing ideas to improve the space program.
The group sent the letter to Ms. Shotwell and several other executives on June 15th.
The document said that Elon's behavior in the public sphere was a source of distraction and embarrassment.
It seemed like the initial response was positive. The employees said that internal data showed that over 1,000 people had seen the letter. Many of them were anonymous.
Managers seemed to support them. According to the minutes of the meeting shared internally and seen by The Times, the vice president said that two of the proposals were great ideas. He said that the third idea was more difficult.
The response became hostile at the highest levels of the company. Ms. Shotwell sent Mr. Moline and Ms. Holland-Thielen an email with comments from a co-worker who didn't like the letter. On the email, the information was reported.
Ms. Shotwell copied senior company officials in the email she sent. I will consider you to be insubordinate if you ignore my email. Please concentrate on your job.
News outlets reported on the letter the next day. Mr. Moline, Ms. Holland-Thielen and three other employees were told that they were being fired. Four of the employees said that an official cited their role in the creation and distribution of the letter.
Ms. Shotwell said that the workers had wasted a lot of time.
Employees were shocked. Ms. Holland-Thielen said they were trying to make it as easy as possible for people to understand. Anne Shaver said the company had retaliated against them.
Ms. Shotwell did not reply to the request.
Federal labor law protects a letter seeking clarification of a company's sexual harassment policies, according to a former chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board. The company could argue that the writers of the letter wanted to criticize Mr. Musk rather than improve their workplace. She said that the labor board would probably disagree because of the posts from Mr. Musk.
Workers said that executives and managers took a much harder line after hearing of the firings. One employee was told by his manager that he had to choose between his work and going to Mars, according to the employee.
Workers said that the company fired this employee and two others in July and August after investigating their role in the letter and that it also dismissed a ninth employee who was involved in the letter.
The suddenness of their firings made them suspect that Ms. Shotwell had bowed to pressure.
She was protecting and advocating for us against some of the worst impulses that could have happened. The trust in me was broken when I realized that she wasn't the one who saved me.
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