The Twitter workforce has been greatly affected by the arrival of Elon Musk at the helm of the company. Since he took over the platform, the businessman has made a dizzying number of layoffs. A particularly violent first wave rocked the social network in November, but the forced outings continue today.
In an interview with the British media BBC, Elon Musk explained that there were just under 8,000 people on the Twitter staff when he arrived. Today there are only 1,500, said the owner of the platform. Or 20% of the initial squad.
It’s not fun and sometimes painful.
According to him, these massive layoffs were motivated by an almost immediate risk of bankruptcy for the company. Twitter only had “four months to live,” says Elon Musk. The treasury was in the red with a three billion dollar hole. Faced with this situation, he was forced to take “draconian measures.”
Elon Musk assured that this decision was not funny in his eyes and that it had even been painful at times. As for the method used, a simple email, sometimes sent over the weekend, clears customs in a pirouette. “It is not possible to discuss face to face with so many people.”
In early February, the billionaire had indicated that after “three particularly difficult months”, Twitter was saved from bankruptcy. But, at the same time, the layoffs continued with the removal of a team responsible for turning the company around, in particular through the implementation of the Twitter Blue subscription.
Source: BFM TV
