PremiumLayoffs at Twitter have begun. The platform has started sending emails to employees about whether they have been laid off, temporarily closing its offices and preventing staff access. Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is reportedly looking to cut around 3,700 Twitter staff, or about half the workforce. The move comes as he seeks to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic. Livemint is closely following the events as they unfold. Stay tuned for live updates
According to AFP, an internal document states that roughly 50% of Twitter's employees are hit by layoffs.
According to Bloomberg, the lawyer who sued Twitter Inc. “pre-emptively" on the eve of mass layoffs by Elon Musk said she’s “pleased" to learn at least some employees will continue being paid until 4 January.
Employees have been told they will receive a severance agreement next week in which Twitter will ask them to waive any potential claims against it, she said.
Elon Musk on Thursday had said, ‘Twitter can be thought of as a collective, cybernetic super-intelligence with room for improvement’ hinting at the massive layoff that would take place on Friday across the Twitter offices worldwide.
Twitter Inc. began notifying employees affected by a far-reaching round of job cuts, and some learned they’ll be paid for two months. As this was happening, the new owner, Elon Musk, said the business experienced a “massive drop" in revenue as many advertisers withdrew.
Amid the overhaul, Elon Musk took to Twitter to defend the layoffs. He wrote, "Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America."
According to tweets by the sacked Twitter employees, staff who worked in engineering, communications, product and content curation were among those impacted by the layoffs.
According to reports, Musk is looking to cut around 3,700 Twitter staff, or about half the workforce, as he seeks to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic
Twitter users have taken to the micro-blogging platform in numbers saying that the mass layoffs of Twitter employees is a Slot machine-style layoffs that saw a massive chunk of employees from the India office being laid off, along with ither payoffs in the global offices.
Apart from the sacked tweeps, Netizens have taken to Twitter to ask if the mass layoff, that can potentially reduce Twitter's global workforce to half, is a hostile takeover by Tesla CEO Elon Musk since after a week of his takeover.
Bloomberg shared the memo that was shared with Twitter employees ahead of the massive layoff. Read the memo here
Team,
In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.
Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email. By 9AM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including your spam folder.
If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email.
If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email.
If you do not receive an email from twitter-hr@ by 5PM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, please email peoplequestions@twitter.com.
To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.
We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.
We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process.
Thank you.
Big companies including General Motors, General Mills and Audi have all paused ads on Twitter due to questions about how it will operate under Musk. Volkswagen Group said Friday it is recommending its brands, which include Skoda, Seat, Cupra, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche and Ducati, pause paid activities until Twitter issues revised brand safety guidelines.
Musk has tried to appease advertisers, but they remain concerned about whether content moderation will remain as stringent and whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.
As of Friday, Musk and Twitter had given no public notice of the coming layoffs, according to a spokesperson for California’s Employment Development Department. That’s even though the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification statute requires employers with at least 100 workers to disclose layoffs involving 500 or more employees, regardless of whether a company is publicly traded or privately held.
A class action lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of one employee who was laid off and three others who were locked out of their work accounts. It alleges that Twitter intends to lay off more employees and has violated the law by not providing the required notice.
A CA employment attorney have pointed out that the laid off employees were entitled to ‘60 days notice under federal and state WARN Acts.’
The company said that in order to "ensure the safety" of employees and company data, the main offices would remain closed and all badge access suspended.
"Those on the way to the office should turn around and return home," the email added.
The layoffs come at a tough time for social media companies, as advertisers are scaling back and newcomers -- mainly TikTok -- are threatening the older class of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk who closed the USD 44 billion twitter acquisition deal last week and took control of the micro-blogging platform dissolved the board on Monday and was named the sole director of Twitter, the social media platform said in a securities filing on Monday
Some employees tweeted early Friday that they had already lost access to their work accounts. They and others tweeted messages of support using the hashtag #OneTeam. The email to staff said job reductions were “necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward."
Twitter’s roughly 7,500 employees have been expecting layoffs since Musk took the helm of the company. Already, the billionaire Tesla CEO has fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, on his first day as Twitter’s owner.
Twitter has fired the majority of its over 200 employees in India as part of mass layoffs across the globe ordered by its new owner Elon Musk who is looking to make his USD 44 billion acquisition work.
Sources said the layoffs are across engineering, sales and marketing, and communications teams.
However, there is no clarity yet on the severance package to be paid to employees laid off in India.
The entire marketing and communications department in India has been sacked, the sources said.
“I don’t tweet about my day job much but it’s hard to believe that after 5 years my time at Twitter has come to an end. Here’s hoping all my fellow tweeps can land somewhere that treats them the way they deserve." wrote Rebekah Machemer, a storyboard artist, whose Twitter bio now reads “available for work"
Sacked Twitter employee Rachel Bonn who worked in the product marketing department mentions that she got cut off from laptop access. The mother of a nine month old and another baby on the way further said, “Last Thursday in the SF office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter"
Twitter human resource associate Lindsay Kander posted a tweet where she was seen sobbing profusely about the Twitter layoffs. She later deleted the tweet. "It's insane" Kander posted on her Twitter account.
Twitter has sacked the whole marketing and communications department in India as the laying off began in the country, according to a report which quoted sources.
“After 7+ years my Twitter chapter has come to an end. Twitter was so much more than a job, it felt like home, where coworkers became lifelong friends. The love and solidarity tonight is a true testament of the culture Tweeps have built over the years. It's been an honor", writes Smita Mittal Gupta- ex-Product Lead @TwitterBlue.
“And just like that, I’m out 🫡. Thank you for everything, @Twitter. I’ll miss you", writes London Lee who was a former social impact at Twitter.
“Yesterday was my last day of work at Twitter. I am grateful that I got the opportunity to work with such amazing folks around. To all my fellow Tweeps - I wish you the best, You got this! Please feel free to dm me if you need any help or just an ear for listening", writes Manvi Tyagi, ex-SWE at Twitter.
As per new agency PTI, Twitter has started laying off its staff in India. The job cuts, as per the report, have affected a ‘significant chunk’ of the India team. "Lay-off has started. Some of my colleagues have received email notification regarding this," a Twitter India employee told PTI on condition of anonymity.
Twitter has temporarily closed its offices on Friday after telling employees they will be informed by email later in the day whether they are being laid off.
The move follows a week of uncertainty about the company's future under new owner Elon Musk. The social media company said in an email to staff it would tell them by 9 a.m. Pacific time on Friday (12 p.m. EDT/1600 GMT) about staff cuts.
"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," said the email sent on Thursday, seen by Reuters.
According to Bloomberg Musk plans to offload 3,700 Twitter employees. The numbers are concerning as it constitutes half of Twitter's working force. He has already removed the company’s board of directors and installed himself as the sole board member. On Thursday night, many Twitter employees took to Twitter to express support for each other -- often simply tweeting blue heart emojis to signify Twitter’s blue bird logo -- and salute emojis in replies to each other.
A class-action lawsuit has been reportedly filed against Twitter on Thursday on behalf of workers claiming the company’s layoffs violate a federal law requiring 60 days notice for employees.
A week after Elon Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase of the Silicon Valley-based social media platform, a letter went out to employees saying about half of the company’s 7,500-person workforce will be losing their jobs starting Friday.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires large companies to notify workers two months in advance of planned job cuts, according to Bloomberg.
“Just got laid off. Bird App, it was an absolute honour, the greatest privilege ever to be a part of this team, this culture", writes Yash Agarwal - a Public Policy Associate for Twitter India and South Asia who got fired today
It says: To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.
If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email.
If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email.
If you do not receive an email from twitter-hr@ by 5PM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, please email xxxxxxxx.
“By 9AM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including your spam folder", the memo reads.
Memo begins stating: In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward.
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