Ultimatum on Twitter: Hundreds of employees resign, Musk closes offices

After Elon Musk’s ultimatum for Twitter’s remaining employees expired, the social network apparently lost several hundred more employees. The US media report unanimously. The Verge writes that before Musk’s ultimatum, Twitter still had around 2,900 employees, up from 7,500 before Elon Musk took over.

“I think when the dust settles, there will probably be fewer than 2,000 people left.” quotes the BBC An anonymous former employee. Meanwhile, Musk and his team have apparently tried to persuade key employees to stay. The group’s offices were then closed until Monday, supposedly for fear of sabotage and because first of all it must be determined who continues to work in the company.

Musk on Twitter: Persuasion before the end of the ultimatum

With the wave of abandonment underway, the chaos on Twitter continues. Earlier in the week, the new boss sent an email to the rest of the staff demanding, “If you’re sure you want to be a part of the new Twitter, click ‘yes’ below.” The time to think remained until 5 pm Thursday, EST. Those who chose not to take the job were guaranteed three months’ salary as severance pay. Some had thought that the ultimatum made it easier for them to dare to say goodbye. Musk had announced that Twitter had to be “extremely tough”, mainly in terms of hours, effort and dedication to work, but also on Elon Musk himself.

What the New York Times now reports, but then on Thursday the layoffs came in large numbers. Musk and his team would then schedule meetings with employees they deemed essential and want to discourage them from resigning. The deadline expired during a large meeting to which the remaining employees were connected by video. While Musk was still speaking, some had walked out, apparently having decided to say goodbye. The farewell greetings were received in the internal communication channels, The Verge cites sources ahead of timethat the Twitter platform will soon collapse. It will be very difficult for Twitter to recover from the mass exit.

Twitter alienates some of its advertisers

While the farewell hashtag #RIPTwitter is trending again on Twitter, Musk isn’t intimidated there. The platform has again seen an all-time high in usage, he tweeted. It had only been three weeks since he had taken over the service and it was thrown into chaos not only with huge job cuts, but also with various decisions and their reversals.

It probably also scared off parts of the advertising clientele, on whose money the service previously depended. The planned subscription service should return at the end of the month. Whether the remaining employees will be able to implement this and keep Twitter running until then remains to be seen.

(mho)