Twitter offices were shut down on Thursday after hundreds of employees resigned from the company, refusing to comply with Elon Musk’s demands for an “extremely hardcore” reset of the company.
Interesting Engineering reports that on Thursday Twitter offices were abruptly shut down after hundreds of employees resigned from the company, refusing to comply with Elon Musk’s ultimatum for an “extremely hardcore” reset of the social media firm.
This is the second time in two weeks that Twitter offices have been shut down. Musk previously instructed employees to remain away from the office after firing half of the company’s workforce. Musk told employees to stay home in the interest of their own safety and that of Twitter systems and data. Employees were informed by email if they still had a job at the company.
On Thursday, hundreds of employees quit after Elon Musk’s email requesting them to work long hours at high intensity and achieve exceptional outcomes. Musk, who set a 5:00 p.m. deadline through a Google form, was surprised that hundreds of people did not accept his ultimatum.
At the 5:00 p.m. deadline, hundreds of employees took to the company’s internal Slack where they posted farewell messages and saluting emojis. Others who had joined a video conference call with Musk abruptly hung up even as Musk was speaking.
Twitter reportedly had 2,900 employees left after the first layoff and many former employees told the Verge that they expect the platform to face major issues soon with many tasked with maintaining key features now gone. One former employee says that Twitter’s headcount has likely dwindled to less than 2,000.
Twitter’s Command Center, which acted as a troubleshooting department for internal problems and was previously staffed 24/7 had seen major departure. The Twitter API team that works with developers has also shrunk considerably, and it appears that almost the entirety of Twitter’s payroll team is gone.
With less than 50 percent of the staff retained, Musk has reportedly had to begin negotiations with some key engineers in an attempt to convince them to return to the company.
Twitter employees in Europe and the UK have noted that none of Musk’s emails or demands apply to them due to the UK and EU’s strict employment laws so they will not be subscribing to Musk’s “hardcore” version of Twitter and will continue to work are their employment contract states.
Reporting by Breitbart News.
