A few days after Elon Musk took the reins of Twitter following a $44 billion deal, Twitter started laying off employees on Friday, according to a memo sent to staff. A company-wide email sent to Twitter employees this morning mentions that they will be notified in their e-mails if they are being retained or fired by their new boss.
While the official memo notifying Twitter employees about the lay offs doesn’t mention how many will be fired, some media reports have shared that about half of the social media company’s 7,500 employees will be fired.
"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global work force," the e-mail said. Twitter employees have been bracing for this kind of bad news since Musk completed his mammoth $44 billion acquisition late last week and quickly set about dissolving its board and firing its chief executive and top managers.
The e-mail also mentioned a particular time when the Twitter employees will know their fates. In the letter, Twitter said employees would find out by 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (9:30 pm IST) if they had been laid off.
However, some employees tweeted early Friday that they had already lost access to their work accounts. The e-mail to staff said job reductions were “necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
Already, Elon Musk has fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, on his first day as Twitter’s owner. Elon Musk also removed the company’s board of directors and installed himself as the sole board member.
On Thursday night, many Twitter employees took to Twitter to express support for each other -- often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to signify Twitter’s blue bird logo -- and salute emojis in replies to each other.
Meanwhile, several workers have filed a lawsuit alleging the move by new owner billionaire Elon Musk violates the US labour law.
Late on Thursday, a group of five Twitter employees who had already been fired filed a class action complaint against the company on the grounds that they had not been given the required 60-day notice period as required under US federal and California state law, according to the text of the complaint.
(With agency inputs)
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