According to a report from the Daily Mail, Elon Musk hung up a video call with a Tesla worker who was inside a burning factory. The incident was recounted by historian Niall Ferguson, who shared his experiences after meeting with Musk. Ferguson described Musk as “concerned” during a meeting where his 18-year-old son sought advice from the billionaire before traveling to Africa. It was during this meeting that Musk received a video call from one of his Tesla factories, which appeared to be on fire.
When the worker on the call was unsure of the significance of the situation, Musk allegedly exclaimed, “Then don’t bother me” and hung up. Musk did not deny the incident in a later post on X, but accused Ferguson of exaggerating the extent of their relationship, stating that they had only met six times in the last ten years.
Musk’s impatience and demanding nature have been described on other occasions as well. The recent biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson shows several episodes where his impatience and strict expectations were evident. One example involved a SpaceX engineer who was called back to work despite having consumed alcohol. The engineer claimed to be more afraid of facing Musk’s anger than the risk of driving under the influence.
In another example, Musk spent Christmas Eve moving servers at an X data center after threatening to fire an employee who estimated the job would take six months instead of the 90 days he wanted.
It is important to note that Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
[Sources: Daily Mail, Business Insider]