Musk didn't fire anyone. He cut the services he ordered from a janitorial contact company (FlagShip) who had the cleaning contract. Musk cutting services only makes sense 1) he cut people and meals at Twitter so much less to clean and 2) anyone who has had an office job and bothered to learn who their janitors were knows that 80+ for a building of 7500 (what it was at twitter pre-layoffs, so it was too high even then) is fucking stupid. You don't need even half that many. You probably could get by with less than a quarter. The custodial contractor then instead if moving them somewhere else or eating the losses until they got more contacts layed people off when musk cut order. Then Musk totally canceled the contract when it didn't deliver services he actually wanted because they didn't show up to work. Imagine if you bought a new house. The prior owner had paid for a lawn mowing service and while you get settled in you just kept it to keep things easy. After living there a couple months you decide that the lawn bill is stupid high though. The lawn company tells you, "But, sir, you have the platinum package, that comes with five yard workers." You say, "Yeah, but I have like quarter acre lot. I don't need five people. I probably don't need two. Give me something cheaper." The lawn guys show up the next day and instead of cutting your grass stand there and say, "We're losing wages without you having the platinum service. Go back to that or we won't cut your grass at all." So you decide, "Oh ok, don't cut my grass then. I'll get someone else or do it myself or whatever." Then everyone blames you for ruthlessly firing the employees of the lawn company. That's what Elon is dealing with.