Elon Musk discussed the possibility of putting all Twitter behind a paywall

FridayTwitter was hit with massive layoffsMonday provided further evidence that the company will never again be the same. Musk suggested that the site be locked behind a paywall. PlatformerThe company has learned. The company is trying to re-hire employees it has laid off just hours earlier, while some workers fear that the economics of its soon-to relaunch Twitter Blue subscription could cost the company money.

This all took place in the background of Musk’s company, which has yet to receive any official communication via email or at a companywide meeting. As Monday began, after losing thousands of their colleagues days earlier, many employees didn’t know who their managers are.

Meanwhile, Musk’s increasingly erratic leadership, coupled with his habit ofTwittering in eye-wateringly bad tasteMany of my former and current employees expressed concern about the company’s future.

Today let’s talk a bit more about how the company botched its layoff process, what happened inside Twitter on Monday, and what that paywall might look like.

Friday’s layoffs had been brutal for all involved, including those involved in planning them — many of whom themselves lost their jobs. While the process varied by team, some managers were asked to submit to Musk’s team two sentences about all of their direct reports: one sentence explaining what the employee did, and one sentence justifying their continued employment at Twitter.

“You were like, this better be a fucking good sentence,” one person asked to write such a list told me.

Managers struggled to make the right decisions and fought with their peers to ensure employment for the most vulnerable of them: pregnant women and employees who have been diagnosed with cancer.

Some teams were cut harder than others. Others were eliminated completely. However, it was too late for the company. As Saturday was my first report.Within hours of the layoffs’ announcement, managers were being asked to contact certain employees who had been laid off and ask them if they would like their old jobs back.

It all started out as a rumor about Blind, an app that lets employees anonymously chat with coworkers. Within a matter of days, it was published in public Slack channels.

“Sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4 PM PST on Sunday,” one such message from a manager to employees read. “I’ll do some research but if any of you have been in contact with folks who might come back and who we think will help us, please nominate before 4.”

“I think we might use some Android and iOS help,” the manager added. Over the past day, the company has reached out to both designers and engineers in an attempt to get them back. PlatformerIt is said.

Some employees are nervous that if Twitter can’t get them to return voluntarily, the company will formally rescind the notice they received Friday laying them off. Businesses with over 100 employees must give 60 days notice to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) if they are going to lay off more than 33 percent of their staff. Twitter’s notice contained a promise to pay employees for the next 60-days and a month of severance.

Now workers fear that if they refuse to return voluntarily, Twitter will fire them for abandoning their jobs, depriving them of what otherwise would have been three months’ pay. 

Some workers are now consulting lawyers to discuss their options in case they are recalled. Others are openly protesting, tweeting publicThreads that discuss various aspects of the company have been posted after the ready-fire-aim disaster of Musk’s layoffs process.

The remaining managers are now bracing for a greater workload than they used to. One of my contacts said that technical managers should expect to manage at minimum 20 contributors while spending at least half of their time writing codes. Others were given more direct reporting.

One employee explained to me that today started at Twitter with two groups: the ones who worked on projects Musk was involved in such as the revamped Twitter Blue subscription and the rest of the employees.

“The couple of teams that are on his pet projects are doing 20-hour days,” one employee told me. “But the majority of the company is kind of just sitting around. No chain of command, no priorities, no organization chart, and in many cases, no idea who your manager or team is.”

Employees sought out unusual sources to learn more about what they should do. Musk tweeted a new policy after a few celebrities and high-profile accounts started to impersonate him. Anybody found impersonating anyone else will be permanently banned, without warning. That was news to what remains of Twitter’s policy team, I’m told, and afterward some employees began discussing how to implement Musk’s edict.

Meanwhile, the health team was told to listen to Musk adviser David Sacks’ podcast for insights into why they had just lost half their colleagues, according to a former employee. Sacks, a venture capitalist who has been helping to manage the Musk transition, co-hosts the “All-In” podcast with fellow Twitter adviser Jason Calacanis and VC Chamath Palihapitiya.

“The most recent podcast covers the current layoffs happening across tech and provides some insight into why this is happening/necessary,” a vice president told employees. “I think it is worth listening to in order to understand the macro environment we are operating in.”

Employees were more interested than ever in their health benefits. The company’s open-enrollment period was supposed to begin today, according to its global calendar, but no information was available in the company’s human-resources system. Slack employees posted many questions today about benefits, but no one answered them.

By the day’s end, I’m told, at least some teams had begun to hold meetings in which employees were informed who their managers are, what their organization charts look like, and what their priorities will be.

But several employees I spoke with were still wrestling with one overarching question: do Musk and his team have any idea what they’re doing?

One side, the company tells advertisers it is thriving. The Verge’s Alex Heath reported15 million more users are now using the site daily since the end the second quarter.

But the rollout of Musk’s first signature project, a new version of the Twitter Blue subscription that will allow anyone to get a verification badge, has been a disaster.

On Saturday, the company launched a new version.Release notes that stated the new Blue was available. Calacanis created the copy. It was widely mocked for sounding like an email scam. Blue was not available and subscribers discovered that they were only able to access the current version.

The company was then dissolved after an extensive discussion about the possible consequences of adding thousands of verified accounts to the platforms in the middle the US midterm election. Postponement of the launch.

The new Blue will likely face bigger problems. The current version had less than 100,000 active subscribers. PlatformerIt has learned. The new version of the platform will be 37.5% more expensive and has a lower value for regular users. It’s unclear how the company will persuade enough people to subscribe to justify the effort.

Twitter employees tried selling Musk and Sacks the idea of asking business accounts for additional features, since many use Twitter to reach large audiences. But they were dismissed in favor of offering wide-scale verification first, I’m told.

Musk added a second feature to the Blue app at the last moment, reducing the Twitter app’s ad load by half. This was the warning of other employees. Sources said that Twitter would lose $6 per user in the United States due to this change. Factoring in Apple and Google’s share of the $8 monthly subscription, Twitter would likely LoseBlue money if the ad light plan is adopted.

“The business fundamentals are just not there,” said one former employee who worked on the plans.

Musk has been involved in the chaos of Blue’s launch by participating in standups and exchanging emails with Esther Crawford. Esther Crawford is the director of product management at Blue. “There is one decision-maker and that is me,” Musk told workers, according to meeting notes shared with employees in Slack.

“Any detail of Twitter Blue must be clear w/ him down to the last detail,” the message added.

However, all this could be a prelude for the greatest change of all: charging users a subscription to Twitter.

According to one person familiar with the matter Musk and Sacks had discussed the idea during recent meetings. The person suggested that one plan could allow everyone to use Twitter but only for a certain time per month, and require a subscription to continue browsing.

It is not possible to tell how serious Musk or Sacks are about the paywall. Twitter didn’t respond to a request. It is unlikely, since the Blue team is occupied with expanding verification.

Still, given Twitter’s huge debt burden, the backward economics of Blue, and the recent pause in spending by major advertisers, it’s clear that Musk and his brain trust will have to do something to significantly increase revenue. It seems clear that Twitter will never again be the same, no matter what they do.