A new wave of layoffs has started in Twitter after an ultimatum from its new owner Elon Musk, Report informs referring to The New York Times.
Musk and his advisers held meetings with some Twitter workers whom they deemed “critical” to stop them from leaving, four people with knowledge of the conversations said. He sent out confusing messages about the company’s remote work policy, appearing to soften his stance on not allowing people to work from home before warning their managers, according to those people and internal emails viewed by The New York Times.
All the while, two people said, resignations started to roll in. By the deadline, 5 p.m. Eastern time, hundreds of Twitter employees appeared to have decided to depart with three months of severance pay, the people said. Twitter later announced via email that it would close “our office buildings” and disable employee badge access until November 21.
Earlier this week, Musk gave Twitter’s remaining employees just under 36 hours to leave or commit to building “a breakthrough Twitter 2.0.” Those who departed would get the three months of severance pay, he said. He positioned the move as a way to make the company the most competitive it could be, though the action also provided an opportunity to further cut costs and purge the firm of disaffected workers.
Twitter’s offices abruptly shut down on November 17 as hundreds of employees refused to continue working under Elon Musk’s new vision for the social platform, Report informs referring to Business Insider.
Company officials told employees all buildings were being temporarily closed, effective immediately, and that their ability to renter with ID access was being suspended for the time being, two people familiar with the company's action told Insider. The offices are expected to reopen on November 21.
A current employee noted the closing of offices is a dramatic move, but intended to "prevent physical sabotage while they sort out access revocations," according to a Slack message seen by Insider.
The closure was first reported on Twitter by Zoe Schiffer of the Platformer newsletter.