Billionaire Elon Musk has been replaced from the top spot of the world’s richest people by Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, the parent company of luxury brand Louis Vuitton. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s current net worth stands at $164 billion, while Arnault’s net worth is $171 billion. 

Musk’s net worth has taken a strong year-to-date plunge of $107 billion. A chunk of the amount was spent in purchasing the social media giant, Twitter. He had to sell Tesla shares worth $15 billion. On Tuesday, the stock price of Tesla ($160.95) fell by 4.1%, which is the lowest since November 2020.

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The new CEO of Twitter, who has taken the company private, has been in the news lately because of the several changes he has brought to the platform, the most significant of all being the $8 subscription plan for verified accounts. Earlier, Twitter used to verify the accounts of notable personalities or organisations free of cost.

Within days of taking over Twitter’s operations, Musk fired top executives and half of the company’s 7,500 employees, ignored advice to not disproportionately fire employees representing diversity and inclusion and has likely violated employment labour laws and breached employee contracts.

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He has also been criticised on social media for an e-mail to employees where he asked them to be “extremely hardcore” when it comes to their performance. Musk’s mail said, “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

This has resulted in a number of employees leaving Twitter of their own accord.

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Musk adheres to a mechanistic style of management that treats employees like cogs in a machine, rather than human beings. It’s a well-meaning, but naive indulgence that sacrifices employee well-being for the sake of profit.