On 4 November, Musk laid off roughly half of Twitter's workforce, and two weeks later, he issued an ultimatum to employees to commit to "extremely hardcore" work in order to realize Musk's vision of "Twitter 2.0", or leave. Hundreds of employees resigned in response. Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP
Twitter owner, and outgoing CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the microblogging platform that fired nearly half its employee force when Elon Musk took over in October 2022, should 'rehire some of the people that were let go'.
In a recent interview with CNBC, the Tesla CEO was heard saying that Twitter had fired so many employees as a 'desperate measure. He said, "desperate times call for desperate measures... Unfortunately, if you do it fast, there are some babies who will be thrown out." Elon Musk took over one of the most influential micro-blogging platform Twitter in October 2022, after his US$44bil (RM198.8bil) deal was completed.
During the interview Musk claimed Twitter was facing a challenging situation, and it had negative US$3bil (RM13.5bil) cash flow and just US$1bil (RM4.5bil) in cash on hand. Elon Musk had fired more than 6,000 people at Twitter, reducing the headcount from 7,800 to about 1,500.
See Elon Musk's interview here:
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Elon Musk said Tuesday on the layoffs that shed more than 6,000 jobs at Twitter. Musk added that he thinks Twitter now needs to hire more people and possibly "rehire some of the people that were let go." https://t.co/1lqWEJEvNr pic.twitter.com/1uiN3xzukn
— CNBC (@CNBC) May 16, 2023
Elon Musk's measures post Twitter acquisition had faced severe criticism. Many Twitter staff members were directed to extend their working hours in order to meet Musk's deadlines for his desired changes to the platform.
On 4 November, Musk laid off roughly half of Twitter's workforce, and two weeks later, he issued an ultimatum to employees to commit to "extremely hardcore" work in order to realize Musk's vision of "Twitter 2.0", or leave. Hundreds of employees resigned in response.
Elon Musk, who acquired the social media platform in October, had steadily pared back its work force from about 7,500 employees as he sought to reduce costs. The company in a bid to lay-off employees made it difficult for Twitter employees to communicate with each other.
Elon Musk's parlaying of workplace ethic saw employees sleeping in office space, which he sarcastically appreciated. Further many raised concern over his easing policies on Twitter in tandem with his ideology of 'free speech'.
This consequentially also increased hate speech on the platform.
"Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app," Musk had posted in October, weeks before completing a US$44bil (RM198.8bil) acquisition of the social network.
To recap, Twitter shut down two of its three India offices and asked the employees to work from home, as yet another measure to save costs. Several people were also been laid off in the past few months. In 2022, Twitter handed over termination letters to as many as 200 employees in India. – Mint, New Delhi
