The email arrived with a ticking clock. It was 2022, and Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, had sent a shocking ultimatum to the entire workforce. "Commit to working long hours at high intensity," the email demanded, "or resign with severance." For Gary Rooney, a veteran employee of 10 years at Twitter’s Dublin office, the email would mark the start of a battle no one saw coming.
Rooney, the director of "source to pay" procurement, never clicked "yes" on the link Musk included in the email to join the new, "hardcore" Twitter. Three days later, another message arrived—not from Musk, but from the company's HR department. It coldly acknowledged Rooney's "decision to resign."
But Rooney had never resigned.
In an unprecedented move, he took the matter to Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), claiming he had been unfairly dismissed. Documents released by the WRC paint a clear picture of a man caught between silence and corporate chaos. Rooney had sent a few Slack messages on the day Musk sent his email, telling colleagues he needed to "step away" for his own sake. However, he never formally resigned.
Twitter—now rebranded as X—used these messages as evidence of his intent to leave. But the WRC ruled in Rooney's favour, stating that the Slack conversations held "no relevance" to the actual cause of his termination. In the end, Rooney’s quiet stand against Musk’s ruthless work demands won him Rs 5 crore (approximately $600,000) in compensation.
As tech employees across the globe watched closely, Rooney's case set a precedent—sometimes silence speaks louder than words, especially when standing up to one of the world’s most powerful billionaires.
