Following Twitter Inc’s acquisition by billionaire and investor CEO Elon Musk, its workforce around the world started getting messages that they had been locked out of their work account— indicating the execution of the much anticipated massive lay offs that had made headlines in the recent weeks. Ever since Musk’s takeover, the social media platform has witnessed sweeping changes- one of them being the removal of the company’s top liaison alongside other employees.
According to a report published by Bloomberg, an internal memo has been sent to Twitter employees, and they are supposed to check two email addresses to know if they still hold a job at the company. An email in their work account would mean that they have been retained whereas a message in their personal inbox indicates the news of their dismissal. Twitter will ensure that the message reaches the entire workforce by 9 a.m. San Francisco time on Friday. Temporarily it has shut offices and halted badge access “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data”, according to the memo published by the company.
People with knowledge of the matter said that Tesla- SpaceX and now Twitter CEO, Elon Musk is looking forward to slash off as much as half of Twitter workforce in order to cut down costs at the social media media platform that has been bought for $44 billion in October, 2022. The company is also trying to find ways to manage interest costs on a huge debt pile.
Twitter management said in an email reviewed by Bloomberg, “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We will recognise that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success going forward.”
The series of hurried amendments is already showing up with its negative consequences. The platform has already been sued for not giving proper information about its plan of firing about 3700 employees.
Advertisers are also afraid of the potential impact of the content moderation policy introduced by Musk. Major companies such as Volkswagen AG, Pfizer Inc and General Mills Inc. have paused advertising on Twitter for the time being.
Twitter employees in the United Kingdom have joined trade unions to ensure the protection of their employment rights ahead of Twitter’s mass layoff announced by its new chief.
