Musk Fired Twitter Sales Exec Wheeler After Persuading Her Not to Quit

Twitter's director of ad sales, Robin Wheeler, was terminated on Friday, Nov. 18, almost a week after CEO Elon Musk reportedly convinced her not to leave the company when she tried to resign.

According to Business Insider, Casey Newton, in charge of the Platformer newsletter, broke the story first. This somehow implies that Musk abruptly changed his mind.

Course of Events

Bloomberg reported last week that Robin Wheeler has reversed her intention to quit and will remain with the firm, at least for the time being.

Wheeler had resigned on Nov. 10 along with many other top officials. Still, Musk reportedly convinced her to stay, according to individuals familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to preserve personal and professional ties.

"Team. I'm still here," Wheeler said on the night of Nov. 10 in an office Slack channel. "This is really hard right now. Thank you for what you are doing because you are the lifeblood of this company."

Since Musk dismissed most of Twitter's other chief execs two weeks ago, Wheeler had become the company's primary contact with significant advertisers. For the purpose of calming advertising fears that Musk is not doing enough to combat hate speech and disinformation, Bloomberg said she held a public Q&A with Musk on Twitter last week, as well.

Shortly after Newton informed his followers that Wheeler had been fired, the former Twitter boss seemed to corroborate the news with a social media post.

"To the team and my clients....you were always my first and only priority," She tweeted, with the salute emoji that has come to represent leaving a firm.

Related Story: Elon Musk: Asked Software Engineers via e-mail to Report to Twitter HQ to Understand Tech, Despite Closed Offices

Musk's Twitter Takeover

Elon Musk paid $44 billion to purchase the social networking platform at the end of October, and since then, the firm has let off thousands of its 7,500 employees.

Immediately after the acquisition closed, Musk began layoffs, making good on his promise to investors. Approximately 3,700 workers have been axed in the weeks since then.

It was claimed by The New York Times that over 1,200 additional workers quit on Thursday.

Employees in the payroll department and other finance departments left en masse after Musk demanded their dedication to a very hardcore Twitter 2.0 with "long hours at high intensity" or otherwise, quit.

Since the takeover, employees have recounted the chaotic working circumstances. These include laid-off workers being requested to return to the workplace, working 84-hour weeks, and some employees sleeping on the office floor.

Contractors were given less than 24 hour-notice, and one employee was dismissed following a public Twitter dispute with Musk.

A worker reportedly told Insider's Jyoti Mann, "It might not seem like a big deal, but I don't think."

Insider's inquiries for comment from Musk and Twitter officials were not met with an instant response.

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Written by Trisha Kae Andrada