(CNN) — Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, gave employees until Thursday night to commit to “extremely hard” work or leave the company, according to a copy of an internal email sent late at night by Twitter. the billionaire and obtained by CNN.
“Moving forward, in order to advance Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely tough,” Musk wrote in the memo. “This will mean working many hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”
In the memo, Musk explains how Twitter will be “much more engineering-driven” and then gives the staff an ultimatum.
“If you’re sure you want to be a part of the new Twitter, click Yes on the link below,” which directed staff to what appears to be an online form.
Musk added that employees who do not complete it by 5 pm ET this Thursday will receive three months of severance. The Washington Post was the first to report on the memo.
The email, with the subject line “A fork in the road,” comes following Musk has clashed publicly and privately with Twitter employees over their approach to running the company. It also comes following the businessman ousted Twitter’s top executives, eliminated the board of directors and fired regarding half of the staff.
“Whatever decision you make,” Musk ends in the memo, “thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.”