Twitter not expected to last the weekend after Elon Musk’s savage ultimatum email

A brutal ultimatum from Elon Musk was the last straw for hundreds more Twitter employees, with a grim future predicted for the company.

Fallout from Elon Musk’s dramatic Twitter takeover has continued, with predictions that the company won’t survive the weekend.

Hundreds more employees from its increasingly disgruntled workforce resigned following Musk’s latest aggressive staff email, which on Wednesday demanded workers click “yes” or “no” to being part of the company’s “extremely hardcore” future.

Resignation would be presumed of workers who had not selected “yes” by the end of the day and they would be offered a severance package.

There is speculation Twitter won’t see out the weekend. Picture: Constanza HEVIA/AFP

Only seven per cent of employees who took part in a workplace app Blind survey following the email said they selected to stay on for the “hardcore” conditions, ABC News reported.

Meanwhile, 42 per cent of 180 workers chose the answer: “Taking exit option, I’m free!”

The email came less than two weeks after Musk laid off half of Twitter’s workforce – about 3700 employees – as well as many contract workers.

The social media site has now been filled with speculation surrounding its future, given a multitude of employees across departments crucial to its operation have resigned.

“I don’t think Twitter will last through the weekend,” one Twitter commentator predicted.

“Twitter is restricting employee access to all its buildings through the weekend with no reason given. The entire android team resigned. The World Cup, the largest sporting event in the world, starts this weekend,” they added.

Sounds like Twitter is going down the sewer.

If it does, we’ll be here to deal with it.

— Sydney Water (@SydneyWaterNews) November 18, 2022

Critical engineers in roles that keep the site running have all resigned, according to their post.

“I can’t see how this can last beyond a few days.”

The tags “RIPTwitter”, “GoodByeTwitter” and “TwitterDown” were also trending as the company continued unravelling ahead of the weekend.

According to The Verge, employees have been told they won’t have access to Twitter offices over the weekend, with badge access being temporarily shut off.

Elon Musk’s savage email was not well received by employees. Picture: Frederic J. BROWN/AFP

Remaining employees told the publication they expected the site would soon begin “breaking” as multiple critical engineering teams almost or entirely walk off the job.

The team behind maintaining Twitter’s core system libraries – used by every engineer at the company – resigned.

“You cannot run Twitter without this team,” an employee told the publication.

Before Musk proposed the ultimatum, there was about 2,900 employees remaining after he sacked about half of its original 7,500-strong workforce shortly after the takeover.

Musk has claimed to be unphased by the mass exodus.

“The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried,” he tweeted Thursday evening.

💙🫡 pic.twitter.com/2LOoeLLbvR

— parker lyons  (@tweetsbyparker) November 17, 2022

Ain’t all bad #hardcore 🤘 pic.twitter.com/L2tCas5jRg

— AODHAN FLYNN (@aodhan) November 17, 2022

And just like that, after 12 years, I have left Twitter. I have nothing but love for all my fellow tweeps, past and present. A thousand faces and a thousand scenes are flashing through my mind right now - I love you Twitter and I’ll forever bleed blue 🫡💙

— Satanjeev Banerjee (@satanjeev) November 17, 2022

An employee Musk once described a “genius” described what his life was like after quitting.

“This morning, instead of maintaining the systems that keep these tweets flowing, I walked the dog, made cinnamon rolls, and dug in on my backlog of recruiter messages. This afternoon, instead of maintaining the systems that keep these tweets flowing, maybe a nap?” he wrote.

It has also been reported that due to employees responsible for processing resignations resigning, former workers still have access to Twitter’s internal systems.

A head salute emoji has been broadly used on Twitter and apparently a slack channel as a way for employees to indicate their plan to resign.

Companies and prominent identities across the social media site have leant into the drama, with Sydney Water taking the opportunity to weigh in.

“Sounds like Twitter is going down the sewer. If it does, we’ll be here to deal with it,” its tweet read.

Twitter does not have a media department to contact for comment.