While their new boss asked them to “go all out or leave”, many employees would have chosen the second option on Thursday, raising fears for the stability of the platform in the coming days.
Departures multiplied at Twitter Thursday, November 17, the day after an ultimatum from Elon Musk, who asked employees who survived the first wave of layoffs to choose between giving themselves up. “thoroughly, unconditionally”or leave (“Commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave”). “I may be exceptional, but (…) I’m not unconditional” (“hardcore”)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. Twitter profile biographies of several departing engineers on Thursday described them as “softcore engineers” or “hardcore ex-engineers,” in a snub to their new boss. A full team would have decided to take the plunge together and leave the company, a departing employee told Reuters. According to several sources, Elon Musk would have had a meeting with some of his engineers to try to convince them to stay, in vain.
The figures for this new starting wave are not yet known. Reuters estimates them at several hundred. In a survey of the work app Blind, which authenticates employees via their work email address and allows them to share information anonymously, 42% of 180 respondents chose the answer “Take the exit option, I’m free!” A quarter say they have chosen to stay “unwillingly”and only 7% of respondents say they have “click yes to stay, I’m a fan”. In a private conversation on Signal with about 50 Twitter staffers, nearly 40 said they had decided to leave, according to a former employee. And in a private Slack group for current and former Twitter employees, about 360 people joined a new channel titled “voluntary dismissal”. A separate survey on Blind asked staff members to estimate the percentage of people who would quit Twitter based on their perception. More than half of respondents estimated that at least 50% of employees would leave.
Blue hearts and hello emojis flooded Twitter on Thursday, the second time in two weeks as employees of the blue bird network bid farewell. By around 6 p.m. EST, more than two dozen employees across the United States and Europe had announced their departures in Twitter posts reviewed by Reuters, though each of his resignations did not go unnoticed. could be independently verified.
If it breaks, there is no one left to do the repairs in many areas. »
An anonymous employee
According to Zoë Schiffer, a journalist with the specialized media Platformer, Twitter warned all employees on Thursday afternoon that the offices in San Francisco, California, were temporarily closed and inaccessible, even with a badge. According to an inside source, security guards began evicting employees from the office as early as Thursday evening. The social network, which has lost many members of its communications team, did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The flurry of fresh starts would include many engineers tasked with fixing bugs and preventing service outages, raising questions about platform stability in the coming days. Thursday evening, the version of the Twitter application used by employees began to slow down, according to a source familiar with the matter, who estimated that the public version of Twitter might not hold up overnight. “If it breaks, there is no one left to do the repairs in many areas”, said this person, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals. The hashtag #RIPTwitter topped trends overnight Thursday through Friday.
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 succeed in an increasingly competitive world”. “Only an exceptional performance will be worth a sufficient mark”, he said in this internal letter consulted by AFP. Employees had until Thursday afternoon to click on the box “yes”, 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.
“It was a great adventure”
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 was a great adventure”, Deanna Hines-Glasgow, who was director of customer relations at Twitter, tweeted on 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.