‘TWEETER’ TOTTER

Staff exodus & lockout after Musk ultimatum

Hundreds of Twitter employees apparently quit Thursday after new CEO Elon Musk gave workers an ultimatum: Commit to a “hardcore” work environment or step down.

The reported exodus threw Twitter into more turmoil after staffers at the social media giant were given a 5 p.m. Thursday deadline to sign onto Musk’s workplace pledge.

The apparent resignations were gleaned from internal communications, including a poll where 42% of 180 workers surveyed Thursday said they were “Taking the exit option, I’m free,” Reuters reported.

Another quarter of employees said that they “reluctantly” chose to stay and only 7% said they “clicked yes to stay, I’m hardcore,” according to the poll that appeared on the workplace app Blind — which allows verified employees to share information anonymously.

Nearly 40 Twitter workers communicating in a private Signal chat also said they were hitting the exits.

And in a private Slack group for Twitter’s current and former employees, about 360 people joined a new channel titled “voluntary-layoff,” a source told Reuters.

Following the mass exodus, Twitter alerted workers that its offices would be closed until Monday and their badge access would be cut off until then, sources told Reuters.

Security officers then began kicking employees out of the office on Thursday evening, the sources said.

It’s unclear exactly how many workers quit Thursday or have decided to stick it out with the company, opting to work “long hours at high intensity” as Musk demanded.

Amid the disarray, employees said Musk has reached out to current and former workers to convince them to stay on board.

Thursday’s fallout came after Musk almost immediately slashed Twitter’s workforce in half upon his controversial $44 billion takeover of the platform.

Among those fired were 80% of engineering staff. With more engineers now reportedly leaving, questions remain as to who will be left to fix bugs and prevent service outages.

On Thursday evening, the version of the Twitter app used by employees began slowing down, according to a source familiar with the matter, who said that the public version could shut down Thursday night.

“If it does break, there is no one left to fix things in many areas,” the source, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, told Reuters.

Reports of Twitter outages rose sharply from less than 50 to nearly 2,000 on Thursday evening, according to website Downdetector, which tracks web and app outages.

Musk’s takeover of the company has been marred with chaos as he tries to generate revenue. One folly was the rollout — and subsequent revocation — of the Twitter Blue verified program in which Twitter users were invited to pay $7.99 per month for a blue check icon.

The feature was shelved after users impersonated celebrities, brands and other high-profile figures.