Twitter workers say farewell after Musk ultimatum

Company follows up with practical details after billionaire challenges remaining employees to be ‘hardcore’ or leave: ‘This is not a phishing attempt’.

The ultimatum represents the latest challenge to a staff that was cut roughly in half in mass layoffs earlier this month. Picture: David Odisho/Getty Images/AFP

A new wave of Twitter employees began posting farewells Thursday, after the deadline passed on an ultimatum Elon Musk issued for them to commit to “long hours at high intensity” or leave.

Many staffers spent the past day weighing their options, after waking up Wednesday to an overnight email in which Mr Musk told them to fill out a form by Thursday, 5pm. ET, to indicate if they want to remain at the company and are willing to be “extremely hardcore.” Employees who don’t opt in will be given three months of severance, Mr Musk said.

The full scope of the departures wasn’t immediately clear. After the Thursday deadline passed and resignations became apparent, Twitter emailed employees saying that the company was temporarily closing its office buildings effective immediately. The offices will reopen Monday, the email said.

As the deadline approached Thursday, some employees posted farewells to the company’s internal Slack messaging platform, according to screenshots viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Some posted the “saluting face” emoji, which many employees had adopted as a symbol of the end of Twitter’s pre-Musk era following mass layoffs earlier this month.

Some employees said they had doubts about whether Mr Musk’s email offering severance would have legal force, noting that the email provided few details. Amid the uncertainty, the company later Wednesday sent around a document addressing such questions, including stating that Mr Musk’s email was an official company communication, adding, “This is not a phishing attempt.” “As you have seen, Twitter is at the beginning of an exciting journey,” said the document, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “We are asking you to confirm that you want to be part of this journey.” Some aspects of the severance would differ by location. Employees in the US, except in New York City, would receive two months of nonworking time on payroll, as well as health benefits, and an additional one month of base salary, according to the document. That would generally also apply to international employees, subject to local legal requirements, the document said.

Employees in New York City would receive three months of nonworking time on payroll and health benefits, more than other locations because of local legal requirements, the document shows.

Some Twitter employees said they suspected that many colleagues would take Mr Musk up on his offer to leave the company, though they weren’t sure exactly how many. Out of one group of about 60 employees, roughly 50 per cent to 75 per cent told colleagues they planned to depart, one person said Thursday morning.

Other employees, however, planned to stay, including for financial reasons or because they were curious about the company’s new direction, some people said.

The ultimatum represents Mr Musk’s latest challenge to a staff that he already cut roughly in half with mass layoffs earlier this month, about a week after he acquired Twitter for $44 billion and took it private. The company had roughly 7,500 employees at the start of the year.

Employees also have been grappling with messages from Mr Musk about future working conditions that some said they found confusing. Last week, Mr Musk said he would rescind Twitter’s flexible remote-work policy, though he said there could be specific exceptions.

On Thursday, Mr Musk told employees all that was required for approval to work remotely was that an employee’s manager takes responsibility for ensuring the person is doing excellent work, according to an email seen by the Journal. Some employees viewed that as an attempt to be conciliatory. In a further email minutes later, Mr Musk warned that any manager who falsely claimed someone was doing excellent or essential work would be “exited from the company.” Twitter also has fired many contractors, including people working in engineering, marketing and customer support, the Journal has reported.

Mr Musk has moved quickly to consolidate power, firing Twitter’s chief executive, chief financial officer and legal chief on the same late October day he bought the company for $44 billion and took it private. Many other executives have left since. This week, several Twitter employees said they were fired after they criticised Mr Musk on Twitter or internally on Slack.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labour lawyer in Brookline, Mass., said she received calls throughout the day Wednesday from Twitter employees seeking clarity about their rights, after Mr Musk’s overnight email.

Ms Liss-Riordan has filed three lawsuits against Twitter in recent weeks on behalf of recently departed employees, accusing the company of violating federal and state law by not providing the legally required warning in advance of mass layoffs. One lawsuit is focused on full-time employees, while a second concerns contractors. In the third complaint, a former Twitter employee is accusing the company of firing disabled workers in violation of state and federal disability law.

Some Twitter employees noted that those on visas have less flexibility. Many tech employees use H-1B specialty occupation visas, which generally allow workers 60 days after losing employment to find a new job or face leaving the country.

Laid-off Twitter employees may not have a strong case for a violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act, which requires employers to give 60 days’ advance notice before mass job cuts if the employer alternatively provides 60 days of pay and benefits, said Marc Zimmerman, a labor lawyer in New York. That is because in the ultimatum email, Mr Musk said those who opt to leave the company would receive three months of severance.

“This is definitely Twitter’s attempt to avoid litigation,” Mr Zimmerman said, adding that the same law exempts employers from providing notice ahead of a mass layoff in the case of unforeseeable business circumstances. Mr Musk recently tweeted that Twitter suffered “a massive drop in revenue” after a string of advertisers began pausing their spending on the platform.

Twitter isn’t alone in announcing mass layoffs. Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Lyft recently made major job cuts after previously bulking up their workforces.

The Wall Street Journal