Elon Musk is launching mass layoffs at Twitter, significantly reducing the company’s workforce of 7,500 and beginning his wholesale overhaul of the company as he aims for a work environment he has described as too relaxed.
“The team, in an effort to put Twitter on a healthy path, we will be going through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” said an email to workers, instructing them how they can learn if their position is affected.
Elon Musk wants to cut about 3,700 jobs at San Francisco-based Twitter. Bloomberg
“We understand that this will affect a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
The email started an anxious wait for many employees, who would not immediately find out if they were affected. Instead, he said that by 9 a.m. San Francisco time on Friday, workers would receive an email with the subject line: “Your role on Twitter.”
Those who keep their jobs will be notified on their company email. Those who miss them will be told via their personal email. And anyone who didn’t receive an email by 5 p.m. San Francisco time was told to follow up with the company.
Twitter said its offices will be closed on Friday.
“We recognize that this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether you are affected or not,” the email continued. “We are grateful for your contributions on Twitter and for your patience as we go through this process.”
This was Musk’s team’s first official company-wide communication with his staff.
In response to the email, dozens of Twitter employees posted a single blue heart to say goodbye to their colleagues. Identical hearts were posted back-to-back in a long thread on the company’s Slack.
The layoff decision came after a week-long assessment of Twitter, in which Musk and his deputies imposed a product freeze that halted development on internal Twitter projects, brought in Tesla engineers to review Twitter’s code and left workers anxiously waiting in an information vacuum on company direction and leadership.
Musk was expected to go ahead with plans to lay off about 50 percent of Twitter’s staff, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential plans candidly.
The layoffs were expected to affect sales, trust and safety, marketing, product, engineering and legal teams – targeting the company across the board.
