Hundreds of employees resigned from Elon Musk’s Twitter on Thursday, ahead of the deadline for the new owner’s “ultimatum” to commit to a “hardcore” work environment.
Salute emojis and farewell messages flooded the company’s internal chat groups a day after Musk issued his request, as employees including engineers announced their departure.
According to a memo obtained by Bloomberg, Twitter closed its offices until Monday to avoid confusion over who still has access to company property as a large number of employees decided to leave.
It is unclear how many employees are part of the mass exodus, but three Twitter employees cited professional retaliation as a reason for leaving.
“Whole teams that represent crucial infrastructure are voluntarily leaving the company, seriously jeopardising its ability to bounce back. Elon has given us no reasons to stay and plenty of reasons to go because we are skilled professionals with many options “said the engineer.
A day prior to the Thursday resignations, Musk had issued his now-famous ultimatum. The new owner warned employees in an email sent to the entire company to expect long hours of “high intensity,” adding that “we will need to be extremely hardcore” if Twitter is to succeed.
By the end of the day on Thursday, the staff had to complete the online form; otherwise, they had to resign and accept a three-month severance package.
The internal Slack channel for Twitter was relatively quiet because Musk’s team had spent days reviewing tweets or messages that had criticised him or his decision to fire about two dozen employees.
About 3,700 people were expected to be let go by the billionaire in his first week in office. Most of Twitter’s senior management was recently fired in front of the public, as were engineers who disagreed with his decisions.
Since his $44 billion buyout last month, the Tesla owner has asserted that Twitter may go bankrupt if it doesn’t start producing more cash. As of now, Musk has informed staff members to expect 80-hour work weeks, no free meals, and several modifications to the company’s work-from-home policy.
