Musk Kills Remote Work At Twitter While Setting Big Subscription Goal
The Twitter acquisition saga continues, but if you were hoping for happy news, you might be disappointed. Elon Musk, the brand-new CEO of Twitter, has sent out his first email addressing his employees. In lieu of a warm greeting, the billionaire broke some bad news, saying that there was "no way to sugarcoat the message." The email makes it pretty clear who's the boss now, and if Twitter had a certain kind of work culture before, it certainly seems like things will be different now.
It's been a crazy couple of weeks since Elon Musk bought Twitter after a lot of back and forth. Upon buying the platform, Musk started making changes right away. He fired thousands of employees, including the entire Twitter board of directors; he closed down several departments; and put all of the remaining engineers to work on a revamped verification system. Musk is also introducing a long-form post feature, which seems handy, but also not very in line with Twitter's previous approach.
While observing the situation from afar may almost be a little bit funny at times, for Twitter employees, the Musk takeover must be a difficult time. With many layoffs, rumored mandatory 12-hour shifts, and a lot of uncertainty, those who work at Twitter are now facing yet another change: a complete end of remote work.
No more remote work and no more rest days, says Musk
As reported by Bloomberg, Elon Musk's first message to his employees contained a streak of unhappy news. The publication says that the email, sent out late on Wednesday, was meant to be a way for Musk to prepare the employees for "difficult times ahead." After that, Musk announced that remote work for Twitter employees is entirely over unless he himself approves it on a rare case-by-case basis.
Bloomberg, which seems to have been given access to the email sent out to Twitter workers, states that Musk's new rules require that all employees will be in the office at least 40 hours per week, and this is effective immediately. Before Musk bought Twitter, the company had a permanent work-from-anywhere schedule. Now, without Musk's personal approval, no one will be allowed to work remotely anymore. This change is bound to be difficult to adapt to for some employees, but Musk seems to be firmly against remote work.
Those who still have a job are also losing another quality-of-life perk — Twitter will no longer have "days of rest." Introduced during the pandemic, the "day of rest" was a company-wide day off that the employees were given once a month. Under Musk's leadership, it's seemingly all work and no play, with the Twitter leader himself allegedly stating: "The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed."