The beginning of the end for Twitter? Departures multiplied among the staff of the social network Thursday evening, the day after an ultimatum from Elon Musk, who asked the employees who survived the first wave of layoffs to choose between giving themselves “fully, unconditionally”, and leave.
Many employees announced their departure themselves on… Twitter. “I may be exceptional, but (…) I am not unconditional”, for example wrote Andrea Horst, whose LinkedIn profile still displayed “Supply chain manager (survivor) at Twitter”. She added the hashtag “#lovewhereyouworked”, that is to say “Love the place where you worked”, like many other employees announcing their choice. Many of these messages were accompanied by an emoji doing a hand salute on the forehead.
“I have no words, I’m just grateful to say that I managed to get my dream job and accomplish more than I ever thought possible. It’s been a great adventure,” tweeted Deanna Hines-Glasgow, who was director of customer relations at Twitter, according to her LinkedIn profile. She defines herself as “Ex Tweep”, the nickname of Twitter employees, and “Blackbird”, from the name of the support group for African-American employees of the Californian company.
“Only an exceptional performance will be worth a sufficient mark”
According to the specialized site The Verge, members of “critical” teams have resigned. This could complicate the resolution of possible breakdowns. At the same time, the words “Mégalomaniac; Interest-free billionaire; Parasite Supreme; mediocre boy; Insignificant Racist,” were projected by an activist onto the facade of a Twitter building in San Francisco.
“To all the Tweeps who have decided that today will 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. She is one of the few officials who have neither resigned nor been fired, and who still publicly supports the new leader.
According to Zoë Schiffer, journalist for the specialized media Platformer, Twitter warned all employees on Thursday afternoon that the offices were temporarily closed and inaccessible, even with a badge. They might not reopen until Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Only an exceptional performance will be worth a sufficient mark”
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 a world of more and more competitive. “Only an exceptional performance will be worth a sufficient mark”, he specified in this internal letter.
Employees had until Thursday afternoon to click on the “yes” box, 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. Half of the group’s 7,500 employees were already laid off two weeks ago by the multi-billionaire.
This new wave of departure does not seem to disturb him unduly. Late Thursday night (Thursday-Friday night in France), Elon Musk posted several cryptic tweets, including one simply containing a pirate flag emoji. “The best people stay, so I’m not super worried,” he also replied to a user.