On Thursday, Twitter continued to lose engineers and other workers after the social media company’s new owner Elon Musk went on a firing spree.
Musk gave his employees the opportunity to pledge to work in an “extremely hardcore” manner or resign with severance pay, according to an email he sent to staff Wednesday.
Twitter’s remaining workforce was given until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 17, to decide whether they wanted to be a part of the new culture Musk wants to create and implement at the social media company.
On his first day as Twitter’s owner, Musk fired top executives; others left voluntarily in the days that followed. The company’s overhaul has included firing half of the company’s full-time staff of 7,500. An unspecified number of contractors were also fired.
In his email sent Wednesday, Musk wrote that employees “will need to be extremely hardcore” to build “a breakthrough Twitter 2.0.” He said working long hours at high intensity would be necessary for the company’s success.
He wrote that it is a software and servers company at its heart and requested employees to decide by Thursday evening if they wanted to stay with the company.
In a different email on Thursday, however, Musk pulled back from his decision that everyone must work from the office. His initial rejection of remote work alienated many employees who survived the layoffs and were unhappy with the situation.
Musk somewhat changed his tone and demands from the initial email. He later wrote that “all that is required for approval [to work remotely] is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring you are making an excellent contribution.”
Another expectation for workers is to have “in-person meetings with your colleagues on a reasonable cadence, ideally weekly, but not less than once per month.”
The social networking service had already had significant layoffs, raising concerns prior to the U.S. midterm elections. The most recent round of staffer exits means the social media platform lost workers just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, historically one of the busiest and most user-active events on Twitter.
“The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried,” Musk tweeted Thursday night in response to the widespread departures.
Reportedly, hundreds of employees posted farewell messages and sent salute emojis on the company’s internal Slack channel to signal their departure. Many former employees posted publicly on Twitter after the company’s deadline.
After Thursday’s deadline, Twitter leadership sent an unsigned email announcing that their offices would be closed and employee badge access would be disabled until Monday.
“Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press, or elsewhere,” the email shared with CNBC on Thursday said.
“To all the Tweeps who decided to make today your last day: Thanks for being incredible teammates through the ups and downs. I can’t wait to see what you do next,” tweeted one employee, Esther Crawford.
Crawford is remaining at the company and has been working on overhauling the platform’s verification system.
Despite the reduction in workforce, Twitter has reportedly enjoyed “all-time highs” since Musk purchased the company.
Twitter has not responded to a message from The Dallas Express seeking comment.
