Female employee bitterly resigns after 2 years working under Elon Musk: A warning for those who are ambitious to ride on the back of a tiger only to be mercilessly thrown down

This female employee lasted two years in a job under Elon Musk that many people can’t last more than two weeks.

Three weeks ago, Linda Yaccarino – then still CEO of X – asserted that nothing had changed when billionaire Elon Musk merged X – the social networking platform she ran – with xAI, his artificial intelligence startup.

“I am still CEO of X and my boss is still the same,” she told the Financial Times in an interview at the Cannes advertising conference.

Less than three weeks later, neither of those things were true.

Last Wednesday, Yaccarino announced she was stepping down as CEO after two years in the role, noting that X was “entering a new chapter” following its merger with xAI.

Industry insiders say Yaccarino was in many ways “put in an impossible position.” She was tasked with bringing advertising dollars back to a platform whose politically controversial boss once told brands that didn’t spend money on advertising that they should “go fuck themselves.”

Musk increasingly pressured Yaccarino, according to people familiar with the matter, and the two fell out of favor. The billionaire’s blunt style clashed with his subordinate’s Madison Avenue charm.

“Sheryl Sandberg has found her groove with Mark Zuckerberg,” said one person, referring to Meta’s former COO and CEO. “Linda just can’t find her groove with Elon.”

While Yaccarino has been successful in reviving some of X’s advertising business, when Musk’s xAI acquired X for $45 billion in March, “she had to wonder why she was still here,” according to Brian Wieser of advertising consultancy Madison & Wall.

Because of Musk’s hands-on, hands-off approach, Yaccarino has never had the control that other CEOs have.

Over the past six months, Musk has been distracted by his work with the Trump administration—a relationship that has since soured. As he refocused on the business, Musk began making one-sided decisions at X—including in the advertising space that was Yaccarino’s focus. These moves caught her and her team by surprise.

“Elon is the one calling the shots,” said an advertising executive familiar with both, who said Yaccarino’s role had become increasingly untenable in the past three months. “She tried to ride the tiger, but she got thrown off.”

Linda Yaccarino, known in the industry as the “Velvet Hammer,” joined X in 2023 after running advertising at NBCUniversal, where she was known for her extensive relationships with global brands.

She was tasked with reviving advertising spending after a series of brands pulled out over concerns about Musk’s erratic management style and his tolerance of toxic content.

In addition to advertising, she is ramping up X’s video features, signing deals with content creators and sports leagues, and developing X Money — a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments service expected to launch later this year.

Yaccarino has been publicly loyal to Musk. However, some people believe that her “natural” talent for sales has made their relationship with him sour. Musk feels that Yaccarino is not fully transparent about the situation with advertisers and often “paints” the reality. He wants her to recover her finances more quickly.

“Musk doesn’t like the Madison Avenue style,” said one person who has worked with both. “He wants to talk straight, no-nonsense.”

Tensions escalated about a year ago when Musk asked Yaccarino to push for faster growth and temporarily brought in longtime aide Steve Davis to review X’s finances and performance. Musk then appointed Mahmoud Reza Banki, a former Tubi executive, as chief financial officer.

Banki reported directly to Musk and spoke to him regularly, bypassing the CEO, the source said. The relationship between Yaccarino and Banki quickly became strained.

Yaccarino wanted to spend the budget on creator funds and upgrading X’s advertising technology, but Banki objected and allocated investments to other areas, implementing a tight financial policy.

Musk’s relationship with Yaccarino continued to deteriorate after she helped sign a content deal with former CNN anchor Don Lemon in early 2024—a deal that later fell apart. During Musk’s first interview, Lemon asked him if he had been on drugs, which angered Musk and led to him canceling the deal. Lemon is now suing Musk and X for breach of contract.

According to people who worked at X, the pressure even made Yaccarino cry at times in the office. However, some people also admired her perseverance: “She lasted two years in a job that many people couldn’t last more than two weeks,” said a former colleague.

Yaccarino also scored a major win in luring some advertisers back to the platform.

A year after Musk bought X, ad revenue dropped by about 50%. Yaccarino filed a lawsuit against the trade group and several major companies, including Shell and Pinterest, for anticompetitive behavior, accusing them of “illegally boycotting” X.

But the increasingly close relationship between Musk and Mr Trump has made brands hesitant to return.

Analytics firm Sensor Tower said X “has shown signs of recovery” in terms of advertisers, with major brands like Temu, Amazon, Apple, Google, Verizon and Dell among the top spenders on the platform in the US since January.

Research firm Emarketer forecasts X’s revenue will reach $2.3 billion this year, up from $1.9 billion last year. Global sales in 2022 — when Musk takes over — will be $4.1 billion.

However, some advertisers are not happy with Yaccarino’s approach.

“She got the ads back to X,” said one longtime executive. “She used her ‘gun’ to get them to come back.”

“They don’t come back willingly or happily,” Wieser added. For some, “it’s better to spend a little money than to be sued by X.”

Many marketing executives say that harmful content isn’t the only problem. They say Yaccarino hasn’t turned X into an effective advertising platform that delivers a return on investment.

“You could say she hasn’t done enough to make the platform more attractive to advertisers,” one person commented. “Many customers are not choosing X, not because of the content, but because of poor performance.”

Still, Yaccarino was praised for her spirit and determination. “It was Linda’s energy and determination that helped restore some relationships,” said former colleagues.

Things changed when Musk withdrew from politics and returned to focusing on business.

“What saved her was the election and Elon’s obsession with government, which temporarily took his eyes off X,” one person said.

The merger with xAI comes just as Musk returns to the company.

“Once he comes back, there is no way he will let her head an AI company,” the person said.

Musk has been making a series of unilateral decisions regarding advertising recently, such as banning hashtags in ads, announcing that he would charge for display verticals, and hiring Nikita Bier — an entrepreneur and prominent X user — as chief product officer.

Yaccarino believes Musk doesn’t pay enough attention to child safety — an issue she takes very seriously, according to a person close to her.

It’s unclear what her next move will be. Her long-term relationship with Musk could prevent her from taking a CEO position at another media or entertainment company, industry insiders say.

However, her role at X helped her expand her political connections in Washington.

She has a personal relationship with Ivanka Trump, who has helped her build a relationship with the president. She is also close friends with Scott Turner, the secretary of housing and urban development, and intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard.

A longtime friend said Yaccarino still supports Mr. Trump despite his feud with Musk.

Maybe she will join the government or work for freedom of speech.