Insiders Claim Musk Will Lay Off Half Of Twitter's Workforce By End Of Week
In late October, word surfaced that Elon Musk planned to lay off most of Twitter's workers if he became the company's new owner. The acquisition deal was finalized only days later, and Musk moved quickly on purging a number of executives from the company. Less than a week later, it looks like the same may soon happen to a sizeable percentage of Twitter's employees, though the claims remain unofficial at this time.
Musk, who currently refers to himself as the Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator and lists his current location as "Hell" on his profile, has announced sweeping changes coming to the platform. The biggest among them will be a drastic adjustment in how Twitter users can score their own verification badges: by paying $8 per month. The subscription fee will also cover a number of other features, with Musk suggesting they could include everything from animated avatars to spoiler alerts, the ability to tweet longer video and audio, and more.
The breakneck speed at which these changes are happening seems to have the Twitter offices in chaos; at least one employee even claims to have slept on the floor due to the apparent time crunch and work demands (via Twitter). Thousands of those individuals may no longer have a job starting on Friday, however, at least according to claims made by people who are said to have inside knowledge of the matter.
Twitter managers reportedly told to choose who will be laid off
According to a report published by Bloomberg on November 2, Elon Musk is planning to lay off around 3,700 Twitter employees, which would amount to approximately half of the overall workforce. Perhaps as extra salt in the wound, the remaining workers will be required to start working in the office again, as the sources allege that Musk will end Twitter's work anywhere policy.
The sources go on to claim that various potential layoff scenarios are being explored and that there's no single one in place yet. One scenario may involve the laid-off employees — who will reportedly learn of their fate on Friday — getting 60 days of pay as a severance. Beyond that, Bloomberg reports that a small number of Twitter employees have already been removed from the workforce; remaining leaders have reportedly been given the difficult job of deciding which people on their teams can be cut.
Some senior Tesla employees are said to have joined the Twitter managers in reviewing which workers will be removed from the workforce, and the basis for such decisions reportedly includes, in some cases, things like how much code they contributed while employed at Twitter. The move is ultimately said to be a cost-cutting measure that'll remove redundancies and help the company in its uphill battle to make a profit — something it has rarely achieved (via The New York Times).