- Twitter abruptly laid off half of its workforce Friday, just one week after Elon Musk assumed control.
- Stories from employees shared their stories of being fired and then getting kicked off the company platforms.
- Sources told The New York Times that one person was in a meeting and suddenly stopped calling.
One week after Tesla billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter, half of the company’s workforce was laid off. Employees who were evicted shared their stories of confusion and chaos about how it all happened.
Musk was able to fire top executives immediately. But the company’s massive layoffs began on Friday. Its layoffs were initiated by a Thursday email that informed employees that some employees would lose their jobs abruptly the next day. Employees were not told by their managers that they had been fired, but rather because they were being terminated. They were kicked from Twitter’s internal systems and locked out of their work laptopsWithout any explanation or notice.
According to three people familiar with the matter, at least one Twitter employee was removed from the company’s system while on a call regarding Twitter Blue. The New York Times. Sources said that one person dropped out of the call as the group was discussing updates and issues regarding the subscription product.
Musk’s handling of layoffs has been criticised. Many former employees of Twitter have left the company. Filled a lawsuitTwitter was sued in California on Thursday for violating the WARN Act. Federal law requires companies with 100 or more employees to notify 60 days before mass layoffs.
Sandra Sucher, a Harvard University Professor who studies layoffs, said that this is a masterclass in how not do it. She noted that it was not common to see layoffs on such a large scale without clear explanations. If you were going rank order ways to upset people without giving them a reason, that would be particularly cruel.
Rachel Bonn is eight months pregnant and a former employee of Twitter. Her laptop was stolen from her office computerMusk had announced that there would be layoffs on Thursday night. Chris Younie (another former Twitter employee) said he was also being abruptly laid off. His work laptop would not turn on.You can log in to his email accounts at 3:00 a.m. Friday.
In a TweetMusk claimed that the layoffs were necessary because the company was losing over $4 million each day. Musk also stated that all employees were offered three months’ worth of severance.
