5 ms·

What is intelligent about mocking a disable employee publicly and putting yourself at risk of a massive lawsuit?

• phs318u 4y ago
  Has he made similar undeserved comments about other people and gotten away with it? Some people believe they can manage extreme risks. And every time he gets away with something like this he’s proven right. Do I think it’s an I intelligent move? No.
  • rsynnott 4y ago
    I mean, define "getting away with it". I think that cave diver thing, and a couple of other incidents, have pretty comprehensively destroyed his reputation amongst a lot of people who previous thought he was pretty much fine. (I do actually wonder if this latest obnoxious behaviour has done any significant damage, though; the previous stuff would already have turned decent people off him).
    • hotpotamus 4y ago
      Donald Trump mocked a disabled person as a warm-up act in his presidential campaign. I used to think that sort of thing was disqualifying for leaders, but I'd say all the evidence would show that it is not.
      • bongoman37 4y ago
        [dead]
    • jacquesm 4y ago
      But: he did get away with it. And every time he gets away with it he sees that as confirmation that he should continue.
      • rsynnott 4y ago
        Well, the guy he attacked failed to get legal relief, but Musk's reputation was severely permanently damaged. I wouldn't call it "getting away with it", personally.
        • jacquesm 4y ago
          From Musk's point of view the legal bit is the only bit that matters. Until he has to pay up some substantial amount of money and is forced to do so it's a no-op as far as he's concerned. Witness the fact that he apparently didn't learn a thing from it. In Musks mindset as far as I can read it the rest of the world is NPCs and what we do, think or feel doesn't matter to him as long as he isn't personally inconvenienced. He probably thinks because he 'won' the lawsuit that he came out ahead. And with his kind of money he can always stall and keep the legal game going until the other side has lost. Life gets a lot simpler if you can throw ethics and morals out of the window and are wealthy enough to manipulate things in the legal arena. Until he gets smacked down hard I predict this stuff will continue.
          • rsynnott 4y ago
            Oh, sure, from his own point of view he probably thinks he won that one. But, objectively, it was likely a big loss for him, even if he doesn't recognise it; the reputation of leadership is important to any public company, particularly if that reputation is publicly notably bad.
            • SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
              Has he lost any positions in business over it? Has he lost any investment over it? Have any of his board members punished him? I don’t think his reputation has taken a big hit at all. Finance people don’t care if they’re financing a horrible person.
            • jacquesm 4y ago
              Reputation of leadership is only important for a public company when it negatively impacts the stock price. The market doesn't care about your reputation, it cares about the stock price...
    • papito 4y ago
      Most of Musk's antics are just entertainment to me, but publicly shitting on your own ex-employee (and in some cases current employees) is just a shocking lack of grace. He just doesn't know when to stop being an asshole. There are people out there who's brains are not wired to deal well with wealth and social media at the same time.