PremiumA few days after buying Twitter, Elon Musk has made a new rule for employees of the social media company. Some engineers at Twitter have reportedly been asked to work 12 hours a day and seven days a week. Why? Because they have to meet the tight deadlines for changes at Twitter set by their new boss, Elon Musk.
According to a report, the managers at Twitter have “instructed some employees to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, in order to hit Musk’s aggressive deadlines, according to internal communications." The report quoted a source, saying that some Twitter employees have been asked to put in extra hours at work without any discussion about “overtime pay or comp time, or about job security."
The Twitter employees have been given a deadline of early November, failing which, they might lose their jobs at the social media company. The report said, “Task completion by the early November deadline is seen as a make-or-break matter for their careers at Twitter."
And the task of the engineers? One of them is to launch a paid verification feature at Twitter and other tasks. Reportedly, Elon Musk is planning to charge for the blue tick at Twitter, a move which has been contested and criticised by many at the microblogging site.
Over the weekend, a few employees with director and vice president jobs were cut, according to people familiar with the matter. Other leaders were asked over the weekend to make lists of employees on their teams who can be cut, the people said.
Senior personnel on the product teams were asked to target a 50% reduction in headcount, according to a person familiar with the matter. Engineers and director-level staff from Tesla reviewed the lists, the person said asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Layoff lists were drawn up and ranked based on individuals’ contributions to Twitter’s code during their time at the company, the people said. The assessment was made by both Tesla personnel and Twitter managers.
(With agency inputs)