Twitter HQ locked up as Musk fears staff sabotage
BILLIONAIRE Elon Musk has locked the doors of Twitter HQ after fears former staff may sabotage the company.
The building in San Francisco will not open until after the weekend following Thursday’s deadline to staff on whether they were staying or taking redundancy. New security passes will be issued from Monday.
Mr Musk gave workers a stark choice between “hardcore” work or accepting a three-month severance deal.
It is understood hundreds opted to get out rather than be part of the drive to remodel the social media platform.
Some industry sources estimated 40 per cent of the company’s remaining workforce have quit and taken the money. Mr Musk had already sacked half its staff after taking over in October in a £37billion deal.
The loss of so many engineers and other specialists will potentially make Mr Musk’s task of revamping Twitter vastly more difficult, sources said.
Hundreds signalled they were leaving ahead of Thursday’s deadline, posting salute emojis or other symbols familiar to Twitter workers on the company’s internal messaging board.
Esther Crawford, an employee overhauling the verification system and staying, tweeted above: “To all the Tweeps who decided to make today your last day: thanks for being incredible teammates through the ups and downs. I can’t wait to see what you do next.”
The newest round of departures means the platform is continuing to lose workers just as it is gearing up for the Fifa World Cup, one of the busiest events on Twitter that can overwhelm its systems. Since taking over the platform less than three weeks ago, Mr Musk has
given the boot to half of the company’s full-time staff of 7,500 and lots of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial efforts.
He fired top executives on his first day as owner, while others left voluntarily in the ensuing days.
Earlier this week, he began firing a small group of engineers who took issue with him publicly or on the company’s internal Slack messaging system.
Then overnight on Wednesday, Mr Musk sent an email to the remaining staff asking employees to decide by Thursday evening if they wanted to remain a part of the business.
Mr Musk wrote that employees “will need to be extremely hardcore” to build “a breakthrough Twitter 2.0” and that long hours at high intensity would be needed.
But Mr Musk has reversed his demand that everyone return to the office to work. His initial rejection of remote working had alienated many who survived the initial cull.
He softened his earlier tone in an email, writing that “all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring you are making an excellent contribution”.