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New Twitter CEO Elon Musk is reportedly planning to force all of his remaining employees to return to the office just under a week after he officially took over the company.
The move, reported by axios (opens in new tab)This is because the social networking giant may also be planning to lay off a third of its workforce, a move that could affect up to 3,700 of its employees.
The decision to force employees back into the office is in stark contrast to some of Twitter’s past actions; in May 2020, the company told its employees they would “never” have to come to the office again if they wanted to.
What is the motivation?
Musk has repeatedly made clear his aversion to remote working at his companies in the past.
In June 2020, an internal memo to Tesla staff urged employees to return to the office for a 40-hour work week, or “pretend to work elsewhere,” despite the world being gripped by the pandemic at the time.
The acquisition of Musk has already led to significant changes at Twitter.
Many of the company’s senior management team have already been fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde.
Plans to end remote working could well be coupled with ambitious plans to revamp the company’s business model.
The company’s engineers have been tasked with rebuilding the company’s “blue tick” verification system at short notice.
The project would replace the website’s $4.99-per-month premium service with an $8-per-month scheme that would also include identity verification, in addition to features such as reduced ad exposure.
The news comes as workers continue to prefer jobs that allow remote working.
A global survey by Linkedin (opens in new tab) found that flexibility was the third most important priority for all applicants, after compensation and balance.