Elon Musk tells Twitter staff in email to accept ‘hardcore’ culture or leave


Musk said in the note that Twitter will be more dominated by engineers going forward, making up the majority of remaining employees and having the greatest influence at the company, which he called a ‘software and servers company’ at its heart. — Reuters

Elon Musk sent an email to Twitter Inc employees requiring them to pledge to stay with the company, working long hours at “high intensity” during its transformation, or to accept a buyout.

Staff will have to complete the online form by 5pm New York time on Nov 17 or accept three months severance. For Twitter to succeed, “we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk said in the email, which was seen by Bloomberg.

ALSO READ: Musk tells Twitter staff: Opt in for 'intensity' or take severance

“Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” the email said.

A representative for Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Washington Post reported the memo earlier.

The form Musk wanted employees to complete contained a single question: “Would you like to stay at Twitter?”

“Yes” was the only option to click, before “Submit”. That left workers with a lot of questions about the nature of the agreement. Many of them reached out to lawyers for advice on how to respond, according to people familiar with the matter.

“It’s certainly wrong that he’s requiring them to sign this document because it might give them the appearance that this commitment could waive or override other rights that they might have,” said Peter Romer-Friedman, who heads the civil rights and class actions practice at the law firm Gupta Wessler PLLC. If an employee needed accommodation for a disability or needed go on medical leave, “you can’t fire them for that. And to me, it seems like that’s what he is promising to do, or at least threatening to do, without addressing those specific situations.”

ALSO READ: Elon Musk steps up purge of Twitter engineers who criticise him

Musk said in the note that Twitter will be more dominated by engineers going forward, making up the majority of remaining employees and having the greatest influence at the company, which he called a “software and servers company” at its heart. Design and product management functions will “still be very important and report to me,” he said.

The billionaire announced plans to fire about 3,700 people in his first week in control of the company. The cuts, which included most of Twitter’s senior management, have upset many of the remaining employees. Musk’s changes have also led to a lack of communication internally and concerns about product breakdowns and technical outages, according to current and former staffers.

Since then, Musk has continued to purge employees who have criticised him, sometimes via Twitter. Musk testified Wednesday in Delaware that the lion’s share of his time “for the past few weeks” has been at the social-media platform, though he said the “fundamental organisational restructuring” will be completed by the end of next week.

Musk has warned since his US$44bil acquisition last month that Twitter could face bankruptcy if it doesn’t start generating more cash. He has told employees they can expect to work 80-hour weeks and fewer office perks like free food, and ended the company’s work-from-home policy with a few exceptions.

The reference to long hours could potentially run afoul of labor laws, said Lisa Bloom, owner of the Bloom Firm in Calabasas, California, who is representing a group of Twitter employees laid off since Musk took over.

“I have already heard from a female manager at Twitter who said, ‘I’ve been at the company for many years. I love my job. I also love my two children. I shouldn’t have to chose between my job and seeing my children at night and on weekends’,” Bloom said. “These are peoples’ lives, and livelihoods and families who are affected by this.” – Bloomberg

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Elon Musk

   

Next In Tech News

Musk now says it's 'pointless' to build a $25,000 Tesla for human drivers
Google defeats lawsuit over gift card fraud
Russian court fines Apple for not deleting two podcasts, RIA reports
GlobalFoundries forecasts upbeat Q4 results on strong demand from smartphone makers
Emerson sharpens automation focus with offer for rest of AspenTech in $15 billion deal
Palantir shares surge to record as AI boom powers forecast raise
Tax fraud investigators search Netflix offices in Paris and Amsterdam, says source
Singapore's Keppel to buy Japanese AI-ready data centre
Tesla increases wages for staff at German gigafactory by 4%
Apple explores push into smart glasses with ‘Atlas’ user study

Others Also Read