The ultimatum of Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk, who demanded that employees choose between being “extremely hardcore” and working intense hours or losing their jobs, was followed by an authentic employee exodus from the company.
“I may be #exceptional, but damn, I’m just not #hardcore”tweeted former employee Andrea Horst.
Musk, also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was criticized for promoting radical changes at the social networking company, which he bought for $44 billion late last month.
The businessman had already laid off half of the company’s 7,500 employees, abolished a work-from-home policy and imposed long hours. At the same time, Musk tried to extend user verification through a controversial subscription service, which caused major advertisers to leave the platform.
Twitter management informed employees on Thursday that the offices would be temporarily closed and inaccessible. In a post seen by BBCworkers were told offices would reopen on Monday, November 21.
“Continue to comply with company policy by not discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere”referred to the message.
A former Twitter employee told the BBC that Twitter will likely have 2,000 fewer employees “when the dust settles”.
In the ultimatum, an internal memo sent out Wednesday and viewed by AFP, Musk said so “to build an innovative Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we’re going to have to be extremely hardcore”🇧🇷
“That means working long hours at a high intensity. Only exceptional performance is a pass”he added.
Musk asked employees to follow a link Thursday at 5 p.m. (New York time) to reaffirm their commitment to “the new Twitter.” Otherwise, these workers would lose their jobs and receive three months’ severance pay, a method uncommon even in the United States, where labor laws protect workers less than in many other developed countries.
Twitter did not respond to AFP requests for comment on the move.
“No words, just thankful to say I got my dream job and got to do more than I ever thought possible. It’s been a crazy ride”tweeted Deanna Hines-Glasgow, one of Twitter’s top customer account managers.
No words, just thankful to say I got my dream job and got to do more than I ever thought possible. It’s been a wild ride #LoveWhereYouWorked
—Deanna Hines-Glasgow (@deeheinz) November 17, 2022
Esther Crawford, director of product development at the platform and one of the few executives who hasn’t been fired, who hasn’t resigned and who still publicly supports the new leader, thanked her teammates for being “great in the ups and downs” of the company .
To all the Tweeps who decided to make today your last day, thank you for being great teammates through the ups and downs. Can’t wait to see what you’ll do next.
– Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 17, 2022
Source: DN
