Twitter employees wait patiently to find out if Musk fired them or not

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
4 Nov 2022 20:59

7,500 Twitter employees await e-mails from Musk, who is embarking on a purge within the company.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk at Twitter's headquarters

Employees braced for widespread layoffs at Twitter as the social media giant's new owner, Elon Musk, announced that he would be firing staff.

Numerous media outlets have got a grip on a letter sent to Twitter's employees, which revealed that they would find out by 9 AM PST if they'd been fired or not. However, the e-mail did not say how many people would be losing their jobs.

Early on Friday, some Twitter employees tweeted that they had already lost access to their work accounts. Other Twitter employees tweeted messages of solidarity, hashtagging "#OneTeam".

well, my entire team just got locked out. officially an ex-Tweep. it’s been a wild ride 🫡💙 #OneTeam
— neeks (@neeks_cap) November 4, 2022

It’s official. It’s been an honor. Twitter Studio Managing Director Out. So much love to the team that road the wave with me. Put up with my slack sappy love notes. Navigated big challenges + created award winning work. Onward we go. Tweep fam 4 life. #OneTeam #lovedwhereyouwork
— Cristina Angeli (@CA_CrissyAngel) November 4, 2022

The email to staff said job reductions were “necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”

Twitter has around 7,500 employees, and they have been on the lookout for getting fired by Musk as soon as he took office.

Immediately upon taking office, Musk fired Twitter's top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.

On Monday, he also laid off the company's board of directors, rendering himself the sole board member.

There had not been any public notice of Musk's intention of firing employees, although the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires companies with at least 100 workers to give notice of layoffs involving 500 or more employees, whether public or private. Barry C. White, a spokesperson for California’s Employment Development Department, disclosed that the department did not receive any notification thus far.

One employee filed a class action lawsuit on Thursday in a San Fransisco federal court upon discovering that he and 3 other employees were locked out of their accounts, asserting that Twitter violated the statute by not giving notice.

Musk on Friday blamed activists for Twitter's "massive drop in revenue" since he took control of the social media company. Large corporations such as General Motors, General Mills, and Audi have paused their ads on Twitter until they see the direction the company is heading in under Musk's reign.

Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.

Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation, and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” he tweeted.