Musk Reportedly Fired Two More Twitter Execs Amid Rumors Of New Layoffs
Elon Musk kicked off his ownership of Twitter by laying off around half of the company's workforce, but that was only the start of the mass exodus from Twitter 1.0 — the increasingly popular term for the platform that existed prior to Musk's acquisition. The new version of Twitter, the one he calls version 2.0, is operating with a far smaller workforce following Musk's bizarre middle-of-the-night email mandating that workers either agree to work "extremely hardcore" or be forcibly resigned with three months of severance pay.
Insiders claimed this last-minute mandate didn't go quite as planned, and that ultimately around 1,200 employees voluntarily took the severance rather than stick around to work until burnout. Many executives have left the company during the past couple of weeks, as well, some of them against their will and others voluntarily. In the latest update on that, two more now-former Twitter executives are out, including one who had previously planned to resign, only to reportedly be talked into staying at the last minute.
Another round of layoffs may happen within days
According to unnamed sources speaking with Bloomberg, Musk fired both Robin Wheeler and Maggie Suniewick. The reason, the insiders claim, was their refusal to lay off additional employees. The same sources allege that Twitter may see another round of layoffs by Monday, ones that will reportedly affect the company's sales and marketing employees. Both Suniewick and Wheeler have confirmed their exits from Twitter in their own respective tweets, both vague but with the unmistakable salute emoji that has become the Twitter workforce's default means of telling others that they'll be leaving the company.
To the team and my clients….you were always my first and only priority. 🫡
— Robin Wheeler (@robinw) November 19, 2022
The move was somewhat surprising, as Wheeler had allegedly intended to resign from the company on the same day as Yoel Roth, who voluntarily departed from Musk's Twitter 2.0. Sources claim that Wheeler was convinced to stick around at the last minute, however, and she released a statement soon after stating that she would remain with the company. Now, only around a week later, she has departed Twitter 2.0.
4 months @twitter has changed my life. No regrets. Just pride and respect for my team and for our partners. We showed up for each other and we always did the right thing. Experiencing this culture built around inclusivity and humanity will power me for years to come 🙏 💙 🫡
— Maggie McLean Suniewick (@maggiesuniewick) November 20, 2022
Wheeler was the sales executive at Twitter, meaning she was tasked with working with the advertisers who have since grown skeptical of Twitter, at least as a viable platform for hawking their products. Twitter's ill-conceived decision to launch the new Blue subscription, offering verification badges as paid products, led to a number of accounts parodying major companies like Nintendo. Eli Lilly reportedly pulled its ads from the platform after a tweet about free insulin cost it a small fortune, according to The Washington Post.