Departures multiplied at Twitter on Thursday, the day after an ultimatum from Elon Musk, who asked employees who survived the first wave of layoffs to choose between giving themselves “fully, unconditionally”, and leaving.
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“I may be exceptional, but […] I am not unconditional”, for example tweeted Andrea Horst, whose LinkedIn profile still displays “Supply chain manager (survivor) at Twitter”.
She added the hashtag “#lovewhereyouworked”, i.e. “Love where you worked”, like many other employees announcing their choice.
According to Zoë Schiffer, specialist media journalist PlatformerTwitter warned all employees on Thursday afternoon that the offices were temporarily closed and inaccessible, even with a badge.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk, owner and boss of Twitter for three weeks, asked employees of the social network individually to commit to “working long hours at high intensity”, “to build a revolutionary Twitter 2.0 and to succeed in a world of increasingly competitive.
“Only an exceptional performance will be worth a sufficient note,” he said in this internal letter consulted by AFP.
Employees had until Thursday afternoon to click on the “yes” box, under penalty of having to leave Twitter with compensation corresponding to three months’ salary.
A method that clashes even in the United States, where labor law is less protective of employees than in many developed countries.
Half of the group’s 7,500 employees were already laid off two weeks ago by the multi-billionaire.
“I have no words, I’m just grateful to be able to say that I managed to get my dream job and accomplish more than I ever thought possible. It’s been a great ride,” Deanna Hines-Glasgow, who was director of customer relations at Twitter, tweeted Thursday, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She defines herself as “Ex Tweep”, the nickname of Twitter employees, and “Blackbird”, the name of the support group for African-American employees of the Californian company.
“To all the Tweeps who decided today would be their last day: thank you for being amazing colleagues through the ups and downs. I can’t wait to see what you do next,” said Esther Crawford, director of product development for the platform, one of the few managers who has neither resigned nor been fired, and who still publicly supports the new leader.