What the what? Twitter has temporarily closed its office in locations around the world, as more staff chose to leave, sparking new concerns about the site’s ability to stay online. Here’s what you need to know.
According to new reports, the social media giant has closed its offices until Monday over fears disgruntled staff could sabotage the company. It comes after hundreds of workers are said to have rejected an ultimatum from new owner Elon Musk to sign up for longer, more intense working hours in order to build a new “hardcore” Twitter – Musk said those who did not sign up would be let go.
Elon Musk’s Troubles: Twitter Closes Offices Because Of Staff Shortages
The Twitter boss had sent an email to staff on Wednesday asking them to click yes on a form to confirm they would stay at the company under his new rules, with those who did not by yesterday evening given three months’ severance pay. The number of staff choosing to leave appears to have surprised Musk and his team.
The billionaire has now backpedaled on his insistence that everyone work from the office – his initial rejection of remote work had alienated many employees who survived the first round of layoffs. And he softened his earlier tone in an email to employees, writing that “all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring you are making an excellent contribution.”
Workers would also be expected to have “in-person meetings with your colleagues on a reasonable cadence, ideally weekly, but not less than once per month.” Since taking over Twitter less than three weeks ago, Mr Musk has cut half of the company’s full-time staff of 7,500 and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial efforts.
Many have now taken to Twitter to say their goodbyes to colleagues, while there are reports of hundreds of staff confirming in private message channels that they are leaving. As a result, concerns have been raised that the platform could struggle to stay online as large numbers of people tasked with its maintenance leave the company and that any issues that arise could take longer to fix without key engineers in place to handle such problems.
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