Most Twitter Staff Refuse Musk Ultimatum – Report

Tom Jowitt,
Twitless - twitter down © Fotolia

Reports suggest 75 percent of Twitter’s remaining staff refused Musk’s “hardcore” ultimatum, as offices are closed until Monday

Twitter has closed its offices after Elon Musk’s ultimatum reportedly triggered a fresh exodus of staff from the microblogging platform.

Tech reporter for Fortune Magazine Kylie Robison for example tweeted that she is hearing that roughly 75 percent of Twitter’s remaining 3,700 workforce have not opted to stay after Musk’s “hardcore” email.

Earlier this week Elon Musk gutted Twitter’s external contractor teams, whose role was to ensure the platform was free of misinformation and hate, with at least 4,400 of Twitter’s 5,500 contract workers in the US and abroad reportedly let go, without warning or notification.

Image credit: Elon Musk

Twitter exodus?

Musk also this week fired veteran Twitter engineers who publicly disagreed or corrected him on social media.

Then in the early hours of Wednesday morning Musk sent a company-wide email that demanded that Twitter’s remaining staff commit to working “long hours at high intensity” or receive “three months of severance,” if they did not consent to these conditions, or support his vision for “Twitter 2.0.”

The “hardcore” email gave Twitter employees until 5pm EST Thursday to click yes on a hyperlink to accept the new working conditions at Twitter, and failure to do so would see them lose their jobs and receive three months of severance.

After that deadline passed, Kylie Robison tweeted that roughly 75 percent of Twitter’s remaining 3,700 workforce have not opted to stay.

Robison also tweeted that a sizeable number of the 25 percent remaining staff (less than 1,000 staff) who did click yes, would likely be Twitter engineers whose US visas are dependant on them maintaining their employment at Twitter.

Robison also noted that (so far) none of the Twitter staff who refused to obey Musk’s ultimatum have had their access to corporate systems halted – although that may change.

Robison also encouraged Twitter staff to get in touch with her so she could update Twitter’s final attrition rates.

Office closures

Last month Twitter’s workforce was 7,400 strong, and of course the situation remains very fluid, and there is no way to externally confirm these numbers.

It has prompted online speculation from some, that Twitter could be on the point of collapse, and Musk has already warned the remaining staff that bankruptcy could be on the horizon for the firm, as big name advertising and brands desert the platform.

The Guardian also wrote that hundreds of employees have reportedly rejected Elon Musk’s ultimatum, and the platform has temporarily closed its offices to staff until Monday by disabling staff badge access.

This seems to have been confirmed by some on Twitter.