Elon Musk told a Twitter executive that he didn’t want assholes on his team

• The Irish Times reported that Twitter’s public policy vice president had called Elon Musk to discuss job cuts.
• Sinead McSweeney stated in court that Musk claimed he didn’t want to be a “slut” on Twitter. 
• Musk said to her that she told her fired employees they could be reinstated if “not negative” and “excellent”.

According to the Irish Times, a Twitter executive claimed that Elon Musk said to her that he didn’t want “assholes” in his team. The fired staff could be reinstated as long as they are “not negative,” according to the Irish Times. 

Sinead McCSweeney stated, according to the newspaper, that “he accepted that people might be talented but could impact the team negatively”

The comments were made by Twitter’s global vice president for public policy in a statement she submitted to the High Court of Dublin to seek an injunction stopping her from being fired.

According to her statement, the Ireland-based executive claimed that she spoke on November 13 to Musk and other senior associates by phone about the company as well the job cuts in her staff.

Musk told McSweeney that employees who were “excellent” should not be fired, according to the report. However, they must “not be negative” and play a “critical” role.

Musk’s comments were “temporarily comforting” to the executive. Two days later, however, the Irish Times reported that the public policy team would be cut by a fifth. 

McSweeney received the injunction Friday. She stated that she had not resigned, but was still blocked from company systems because she failed to respond to Musk’s ultimatum emails.

Musk sent an email at midnight to Twitter employees, asking them to join a “extremely difficult” culture. They had to click a link in the email. Or they would be considered to have resigned.

McSweeney declined to reply, claiming that the terms in the email were unclear. This left her uncertain about her employment status. The injunction will remain in effect until further notice by the court.

Insider reached out to McSweeney and Twitter for clarification.