On November 16, Elon Musk gave his employees in Dublin a choice. In an email, the new Twitter owner wrote that they had until the next day to decide: either for “long and intensive hours of work” at the European headquarters of the US tech group or for a severance payment of three months’ salary. Sinead McSweeney, then global vice president for public policy at Twitter in Dublin, opted for a third option: she simply didn’t answer Musk.
Shortly thereafter, McSweeney claims to have received another email in which her Twitter confirmed that she had accepted the offer of compensation. At the same time, this meant that not only was her email account blocked, but also her access to the company’s internal IT systems. McSweeney didn’t come to her office either. That’s when she hired a lawyer and took Twitter to court. With success.
First, McSweeney had obtained an injunction in court that prevented Twitter from terminating her. This week, the group’s lawyers told the High Court in Dublin that McSweeney was back in her position at the company. Twitter has committed to allowing senior management to regain access to the company’s IT systems and premises at George’s Quay in Dublin.
Around 500 employees once worked at Twitter’s European headquarters. Now it’s 140 less
Twitter’s lawyers explained that the company’s aim is to “turn the noise down” a little bit. One is interested in the fact that the company’s human resources department can now enter into negotiations with the employee in order to settle the dispute.
McSweeney’s attorney welcomed Twitter’s decision but made it clear that his client continued to have concerns about her job. She has received “mixed messages” from both Elon Musk and senior executives in the US. Musk runs Twitter “in an unorthodox way” and fires employees “without any discernible logic”. She therefore no longer has any confidence in the company, McSweeney said through her lawyer.
The judge said that while he wasn’t a recruiter himself, he recommended that both parties engage in open discussions. If this does not happen, they will see each other again in court early next year. In any case, he will deal with the matter in accordance with the law. Exactly what that means can already be seen from the injunction that the judge issued. Accordingly, Twitter was prohibited from applying the conditions Musk had formulated in his email of November 16 to McSweeney’s employment contract.
Since the employee is probably not the only one at Twitter’s European headquarters who has not responded to Musk’s email, there are likely to be employees who will follow her example. Of course, the fundamental question remains whether you want to continue working for Twitter at all. Before Musk took over the group, around 500 employees worked at Twitter in Dublin. A good 140 people have given up their jobs since Musk’s cut.