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Elon Musk is at risk of losing 75 percent of Twitter’s remaining workforce after hundreds resigned and more ignored the CEO’s deadline to stay or leave.
Musk sent an email to his remaining 3,700 employees on Wednesday, giving them a deadline at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday to either click a link to confirm their willingness to work “long, high-intensity hours” or leave the company with a severance payment of three months.
Fortune magazine reporter Kylie Robinson said her contacts within the company believed about 75 percent of all employees who remained at the San Francisco-based company ignored the email to decide their future.
She later clarified that it’s unclear how many people ignored the link.
According to The Verge, about 2,900 of the remaining 3,700 employees have decided to stay. If true, that would mean a healthier proportion of the remaining workforce, though exact numbers have not yet been released.
Employees leaving the social media giant sent their goodbyes on the company’s Slack platform, The New York Times reported.
Twitter’s CEO, who has been active on social media, sent out a tweet at 7:50 p.m. that read, “How do you make a small fortune on social media?” Start with a big one.’
He later added, “The best people stay, so I’m not worried.”
Meanwhile, social media users have been blasting Musk on Twitter with the #RIPTwitter, jokingly comparing the company’s mass exodus to the sinking Titanic and a burning house.
Musk fired back with his own tweet featuring the Twitter bird logo on a tombstone.
Elon Musk is on the verge of losing 75 percent of his remaining workforce after hundreds resigned following his 5 p.m. ET deadline for employees to go “hardcore.” Musk sent an email to staff on Wednesday, telling them to commit to “long, high-intensity hours” or quit on a three-month severance package
It’s unclear how many employees have quit, but reportedly say about 2,900 after hundreds of layoffs on Thursday. Meanwhile, social media users created memes to mock the mass exodus from Twitter
Some users joked that the company was sinking like the Titanic
One person called it the ‘end of an era’
The CEO of Twitter even fired back with his own meme
Meanwhile, the mass exodus didn’t seem to faze the billionaire CEO
Musk softened his total ban on remote work in a follow-up email, after more employees than he expected chose to leave Thursday afternoon, according to Bloomberg.
“All that’s required for approval is your manager taking responsibility for making sure you’re an outstanding contributor,” he said in the follow-up on working from home.
Musk previously said that remote work would no longer be allowed and that employees would be expected to be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week.
He had told employees that if “you don’t come to the office, your resignation will be accepted,” according to a meeting transcript reported by Verge.
Meanwhile, employees said it would be difficult for the company to rebuild itself after losing key staffers.
“It feels like all the people who made this place great are leaving,” said one employee. “It’s going to be extremely hard for Twitter to get rid of this, no matter how hardcore the people who remain try to be.”
Before the end of Thursday’s business day, the social media company sent an email saying access to its office buildings with an employee badge would be disabled until Monday.
Sources said the temporary closure of the office was due to concerns that the company would be run by employees, said Zoë Schiffer, editor-in-chief at Platformer.
“We are hearing this because Elon Musk and his team are terrified that employees will sabotage the company,” Schiffer wrote. “Plus, they’re still trying to figure out which Twitter employees to block access to.”
Meanwhile, employees posted their goodbyes on Twitter.
“And just like that, after 12 years, I left Twitter,” Satanjeev Banergee wrote. “I have nothing but love for all my fellow tweeps, past and present. A thousand faces and a thousand scenes are flashing through my mind right now – I love you Twitter and I’ll bleed blue forever.”
Before the end of Thursday’s business day, the social media company sent an email saying access to its office buildings with an employee badge would be disabled until Monday
Musk seemed unconcerned about people leaving, saying ‘The best people stay, so I’m not worried’
Musk gave all Twitter employees (who entered the New York City offices earlier this month) until Thursday 5 p.m. ET to click a link confirming their willingness to work “long hours at high intensity,” or leave the company
It comes just weeks after Musk laid off some 3,700 Twitter employees, or half of the company’s workforce, amid sweeping changes seeking profitability for the social media platform.
Musk has criticized Twitter’s spending and work culture, saying the company needs major cost cuts and a reboot of its services.
In his Wednesday morning email asking employees to confirm his hard-core vision or leave, Musk shared a link to a Google form with a single option to select: “Yes.”
He said anyone who failed to complete the form would leave the company with a three-month severance package, according to a copy of the memo reported by CNBC.
“Going forward, to build a breakthrough in Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will have to be extremely hardcore,” he wrote.
“This means long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance is a passing grade,” Musk said.
Musk has criticized Twitter’s spending and work culture, saying the company needs major cost cuts and a reboot of its services
Musk said Twitter would be “much more tech-driven” under his leadership, adding that “those who write great code will make up the majority of our team and have the greatest influence.”
“Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful,” he added.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla, who is the richest person in the world, has retaliated for cost cutting since taking over Twitter.
Even after mass layoffs that forced it to try to offer some workers in critical divisions to return, some employees on Tuesday said they had been laid off.
They said they suspected it was due to the company or Musk posting critical comments on Twitter or his internal messaging platform.
Musk called himself a “free speech absolutist” as he pursued the Twitter purchase.
A source told Reuters they received an overnight termination email stating that “your recent conduct violated company policy,” adding that he believes more than 20 people were fired in the latest round.
Several others tweeted on Tuesday that they had received the same emails.
“I want to apologize for firing these geniuses,” Musk tweeted Tuesday. “Their immense talent will undoubtedly be useful elsewhere.”