Elon Musk into Twitter, set a deadline for employees, requiring them to accept the new “hardcore” work environment before then, or they must leave. As a result, Twitter has started a wave of departures that threaten to exceed 50 percent, and he has just laid off about 50 percent of Twitter’s workforce.
According to an email seen by Reuters today, Elon Musk asked all remaining Twitter employees who write software code to report to the 10th floor of his San Francisco office in the early afternoon on Friday, local time.
I would appreciate it if you could fly to San Francisco and attend in person, if possible,” he said in a follow-up email, adding that he would stay at the company’s headquarters until midnight and return Saturday morning. He said the engineers should report at 2 p.m. Friday.
Elon Musk has faced rapid changes in various situations in the three weeks leading up to his acquisition of Twitter. The chaos has been exacerbated by a mass exodus, with the company’s workforce having been cut by more than half during that time due to layoffs and other departures, to around 3,700 according to Reuters.
In his first email to Twitter employees this month, Elon Musk warned that Twitter might not “survive the coming recession. He added, “We’re also changing Twitter policy to no longer allow remote work unless you have specific exceptions.”
Later, sources also said that Elon Musk and other company executives tried to convince employees to stay as more people opted out of Twitter’s “hardcore” work environment.
“To get approval, you have to hold your supervisor accountable for making sure you’re delivering great contributions.” He also added that employees should have face-to-face meetings with their colleagues at least once a month.
But Elon Musk then sent a follow-up email saying, “Any manager who falsely claims a subordinate is doing a great job or falsely claims a specific position is critical, whether working remotely or not, that person will be fired.”
On Wednesday, Elon Musk asked employees to formally declare their willingness to continue working for Twitter, a document that also included a promise of “intense overtime work. Employees had until 5 p.m. ET Thursday to fill out a form.
The form contains only one option: “Agree.” Any employee who does not accept the request by the deadline will have to take a severance package equivalent to three months’ salary and leave the company.
