Elon Musk began laying off Twitter employees on Friday, culling the social media service’s 7,500-person work force a little over a week after completing his blockbuster buyout, The New York Times reported.
According to The New York Times, Twitter employees were notified in a companywide email that the layoffs were set to begin, according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times. Workers were instructed to go home and not go to the offices on Friday as cuts proceeded. The message, which came from a generic address and was signed “Twitter,” did not detail the total number of layoffs.
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global work force,” the email said. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward”
The New York Times also reported that in Dublin, home to Twitter’s European headquarters, some employees on Friday morning were cut off from the internal computer system and received an email about the job cuts.
“These decisions never come easy,” it said, “and it is with regret that we write to inform you that your role at Twitter has been identified as potentially impacted or at risk of redundancy.” Decisions were being made, the note said, depending on the country where a person lives and that more information would be shared “as soon as possible.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that later Thursday night, a growing number of Twitter employees said that they had lost access to the company Slack and email accounts, in an apparent sign that they were among those being laid off.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr Musk moved quickly to make personnel changes at the top of the company. Last week, on the same day he closed the deal, he fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and three other top executives. Mr. Musk fired the executives for cause and is saying he isn’t required to pay them multimillion-dollar severance packages, the Journal reported. Other executives have departed since.
The Verge posted a copy of the entire Twitter memo that employees received. Someone posted it on Twitter, which is where I first saw it. If you aren’t on Twitter and curious about the memo, I recommend reading it from The Verge.
The Guardian reported that Musk is now the sole director of Twitter after dissolving the board, including the chair, Bret Taylor, and sacking a number of executives as soon as he took over the business last week.
According to The Guardian, the firings included the chief executive, Parag Agrawal, the chief financial officer, Ned Segal, and the head of legal, policy, and trust, Vijaya Gadde. As the de facto CEO, Musk has brought in a team of associates to help him run the business, including his personal attorney, Alex Spiro, and his tech investors Jason Calacanis and David Sacks.
Personally, I don’t think this sudden firing of employees was the smartest idea. It sounds as though Elon Musk is unaware how this will look to those who have been using Twitter for years. It has been mentioned that Twitter became extremely hostile (or, several accounts did) shortly after Elon Musk purchased it. Some are concerned that things are going to get a whole lot worse. Now that there are fewer employees, it will be much harder to have a report looked at or taken action on.