Musk axes 200 more staff in latest Twitter cull
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Musk axes another 200 staff — including a loyal manger who slept in her office — in latest Twitter cull
Twitter has laid off about 10 percent of its remaining workforce in its latest round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over last year.
Some 200 employees were laid off over the weekend, including Musk enthusiast Esther Crawford who spearheaded the Twitter Blue subscription relaunch.
The product manager was known for publicly committing to Musk’s hardcore office culture. Last November, a photo of her in the office in a sleeping bag and wearing a sleep mask was shared online.
Fired: Twitter executive Esther Crawford, who was known for her open commitment to Musk’s hardcore office culture. has now lost her job
When news of her firing broke, she took to the platform to defend herself, writing, “The worst thing you can get when you see me go all in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake .
“Those who scoff and scoff are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena. I am immensely proud of the team that built through so much noise and chaos.”
Musk bought Twitter for £38 billion in October and laid off about half of its 7,500-strong workforce the following month.
He called on those who remained to join an “extremely hardcore” work culture and further cuts have been made since then.
But the latest round of job cuts was the biggest since then, affecting 200 of the 2,000 remaining workers.
According to The New York Times, it was mainly product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability for the company.
Twitter employees took to Blind, an anonymous online platform for verified employees, to detail the cuts as they unfolded.
“People will receive an email at 2 a.m. Saturday and access will be closed immediately,” one message read.
“This will go down in history as one of the most extreme layoffs in company history.”
The user claimed that the layoffs hit the project management department hardest and were spread across HR, sales and marketing, engineering and finance.
Committed: Crawford posted a photo of herself sleeping in her office working long hours to relaunch the Twitter Blue subscription
Crawford was one of several laid-off employees who founded small technology companies that Twitter had previously purchased.
She founded Squad, a screen sharing and video chat app, which Twitter bought in 2020 before joining the social media giant.
In response to Crawford’s tweet following her firing, Ella Irwin, head of trust and security at Twitter, wrote: “Thank you for working so hard to lay the groundwork for Twitter 2.0 Esther. You will be missed.’
Musk, the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, has been smart and direct about the financial turmoil facing Twitter.
The 51-year-old made it clear before his acquisition that cost-cutting would be the priority.
Employees were told in November that they had to sign a pledge to remain in their position.
They received an email that read, “If you’re sure you want to be a part of the new Twitter, click yes on the link below.”
The link led to an online form, in which Musk told his employees that if they didn’t sign two days later on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, they would receive three months of severance pay.