‘#R.I.P Twitter’ Trends As Musk’s Ultimatum To Staff Reportedly Triggers Exodus And Offices Close—Here’s What You Need To Know
Topline
Confusion reigns at Twitter as the company closed its offices and hundreds of employees opted to leave rather than sign on to Elon Musk’s demand they work longer hours, the latest in a series of chaotic developments as concerns grow that the billionaire’s leadership is putting the social media platform’s future at risk.
The Twitter workers reportedly decided to resign rather than accept Elon Musk’s demands that they work longer hours … [+]
Here are some key facts
Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees reportedly resigned rather than agree to Musk’s “extremely hardcore” ultimatum to work long hours at high intensity, which had a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Thursday
Although the social media company told its employees abruptly that it would close their offices until Monday, they did not provide any explanation.
The scale of the departure has reportedly sparked confusion over who should still be allowed access and the Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer said the closure is a stalling tactic to solve the issue and assuage the fears of Musk and his team, who are “terrified employees are going to sabotage the company.”
The exodus means multiple systems vital to ensuring the platform stays working now have just one or two—or, in some cases, zero—engineers servicing them, the Washington Post reported and the Verge said multiple critical teams “have now either completely or near-completely resigned,” both citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.
The latest Twitter turmoil sparked fears among users the platform could soon go dark, with many sending out goodbye tweets and “Goodbye Twitter” and “RIPTwitter” trending on the site.
Keep an eye out for these things
Musk has said he’s not worried about the number of departures. But there is evidence that the numbers are much higher than expected. Before Thursday’s deadline, Twitter reportedly walked back its earlier demands that workers abandon working remotely. Previous to this, Twitter asked those it had fired for their return because they were late realizing the value of their skills or work. The workers told the Washington Post According to the Verge, it’s likely that the platform will soon stop working.
What We Don’t Know
It’s unclear exactly how many employees remain at Twitter. Musk took control of the company with over 7,000 employees. He said that this was a significant headcount and it would be financially impossible to sustain. The billionaire fired senior leadership and Twitter’s entire board during the early stages of his leadership and laid off around half of the workforce. Musk has fired many employees, some of them publicly, who have disagreed with his leadership. While estimates of how many employees remain vary widely, most figures fall within the range of between 2000 and 2,500. It is possible to obtain precise numbers if you consider that many of the people in charge of human resources have also left.
Tangent
Musk, without evidence, tweeted “record numbers of users” were logging in “to see if Twitter is dead” on Thursday. “Ironically making it more alive than ever.”
SME Valuation
$191.4 billion. That’s the estimated net worth of Elon Musk, according to SME’ real-time tracker. Musk is best known as the founder and leader of Tesla’s electric car, SpaceX, and Boring Company. Musk bought Twitter in October for $44Billion.
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Elon Musk Allows Twitter Employees 2 Days to Decide if They Wish To Stay (SME).
Hundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ Twitter (Verge)
