Elon Musk denies scolding employee for taking time off to witness childbirth

Elon Musk has denied writing or speaking a quotation in which he supposedly chastised a Tesla employee for missing an event to witness the birth of his child. The quote — lifted from an authorized biography of the entrepreneur by business journalist Ashlee Vance and published by The Washington Post — reads: "That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t."

Musk, however, said in a tweet that he had "never written or said this" and that Vance's book was "not independently fact-checked" and should be taken "[with] a grain of salt." He later added that the claim was "BS & hurtful" and that another quote used in the piece — in which Musk describes himself as a "samurai" — was also incorrect. The Washington Postdescribes the quotation as coming from "an anonymous Tesla employee recalling an email from Musk" — a somewhat tenuous line of attribution.

More