BackAfter Elon Musk's ultimatum, mass exodus at Twitter
Elon Musk had spelled out an ultimatum to the tweeps that they will have to decide whether they want to stay on for ‘working long hours at high intensity’ or else they can take a severance package of three months' pay.
PremiumHundreds of Twitter employees are estimated to be leaving the company after Elon Musk's mail demanded staff to sign up for long hours.
As reported by Reuters, in a poll on the workplace app Blind, which verifies employees through their work email addresses and allows them to share information anonymously, 42 percent of 180 people chose the answer for "Taking exit option, I'm free!"
A quarter said they had chosen to stay "reluctantly," and only 7 percent of the poll participants said that they "clicked yes to stay, I'm hardcore."
Musk was meeting some top employees to try and convince them to stay, said one current employee and a recently departed employee who is in touch with Twitter colleagues.
Also read: After being strict, Elon Musk softens his tone to retain Twitter employees
While it is unclear how many employees have chosen to stay, the numbers highlight the reluctance of some staffers to remain at a company where Musk has hastened to fire half its employees including top management, and is ruthlessly changing the culture to emphasize long hours and an intense pace.
Musk had spelled out an ultimatum to the tweeps that they will have to decide whether they want to stay on for "working long hours at high intensity" or else they can take a severance package of three months' pay.
"Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful," the message read.
Also Read: Elon Musk’s ‘productivity recommendations to his employees: ‘Avoid meetings, nonsense words’
In a message to the employees, Musk said that in order to build Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, extremely hardcore required. “This will mean long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade."
In a private chat on Signal with about 50 Twitter staffers, nearly 40 said they had decided to leave, according to the former employee. And in a private Slack group for Twitter's current and former employees, about 360 people joined a new channel titled "voluntary-layoff," said a person with knowledge of the Slack group.
A separate poll on Blind asked staffers to estimate what percentage of people would leave Twitter based on their perception. More than half of respondents estimated at least 50% of employees would leave.
Blue hearts and salute emojis flooded Twitter and its internal chatrooms on Thursday, the second time in two weeks as Twitter employees said their goodbyes.
By 6 pm Eastern, over two dozen Twitter employees across the United States and Europe had announced their departures in public Twitter posts reviewed by Reuters, though each resignation could not be independently verified.
On Thursday evening, the version of the Twitter app used by employees began slowing down, according to one source familiar with the matter, who estimated that the public version of Twitter was at risk of breaking during the night. "If it does break, there is no one left to fix things in many areas," the person said, who declined to be named for fear of retribution.
As the deadline approached, employees scrambled to figure out what to do. One team within Twitter decided to take the leap together and leave the company, one employee who is leaving told Reuters.
Since the takeover, it has been chaotic two weeks for Twitter employees. And long hours have already become a norm in the company. Twitter laid off half of its workforce earlier this month shortly after Musk took control of the social media company. Then he rehired several employees noting that firing them was a mistake.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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