dailyO
Technology

Will Twitter shut down? More Elon Musk ultimatums, employee exodus, #RIPTwitter trends

Advertisement
Amrutha Pagad
Amrutha PagadNov 18, 2022 | 09:55

Will Twitter shut down? More Elon Musk ultimatums, employee exodus, #RIPTwitter trends

Chaos at Twitter as employee exodus begins after Elon Musk's ultimatum. Photo: DailyO/Twitter

Twitter headquarters currently seems to resemble the scene from the Titanic movie as the ship is sinking, people are figuring out the news, and sheer panic spreading across the board. Wonder who's playing the violin selflessly to keep everyone calm? Not Elon Musk, the captain of the Twitter ship, for sure!

Advertisement

If you woke up to refresh your Twitter feed… and it didn't work, well, then good that you found this article. #GoodByeTwitter, #RIPTwitter, #TwitterDown and more are trending on Twitter at a rate faster than we can type. 

Twitteratis are literally saying their goodbyes in what they think will be their final tweets, and honestly, it's kind of sad (cue: sad background music).  

So, what's happening? Elon Musk! Duh!

Remember the ultimatum Musk sent to Twitter employees about committing to work "long hours" at "high intensity" or leaving the company? He had also sent a link with the email asking employees to click on 'yes' or 'no' (meaning they resign) by a deadline.

Well, turns out a lot of employees (or however many are still left) either clicked 'no' or just didn't respond and are quitting in droves. 

  • Reuters reported that hundreds of employees are estimated to be leaving Twitter.
  • A survey conducted by the workplace app Blind which verifies employees and allows them to share information anonymously, 40% of 180 Twitter employees said they are quitting. 
Advertisement
Taking exit option, I'm free!
- 42% marked their answers on Blind app
  • Apparently, only 7% chose to say yes. 
  • Reportedly, Musk is also meeting with several employees to convince them to stay, especially the core engineering team. 
  • And Musk has once again closed down Twitter office access till Monday, November 21, over concerns of sabotage by exiting employees. 
Twitter, which has lost many of its communication team members, did not respond to a request for comment.
- Reuters
I'm not pressing the button. My watch ends with Twitter 1.0. I do not wish to be part of Twitter 2.0.
- A departing employee said on Slack (The Verge)

  • Elon Musk says he's not worried about people leaving Twitter as the best are staying. 

  • But people at Twitter ARE NOT HAPPY! This is a video of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters blasting Elon Musk, calling him an "Apartheid profiteer" and "lawless oligarch" among other things. 

More ultimatums and threats: No one knows who's actually making Twitter function anymore, but Elon Musk is not yet done with his workplace culture upheaval and ultimatums to employees. 

  • In the latest, Elon Musk wrote to managers about allowing Work From Home to employees. 
  • He sent emails to managers saying that WFH approvals will be done at the risk of the job of that manager. 
Advertisement
Regarding remote work, all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution...
- Elon Musk
...any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company.
- Elon Musk
  • In other words, Elon Musk is not saying 'no' to WFH, but he's making managers do the dirty work and take responsibility. But at the same time, he's also making it impossible for managers to approve WFH by putting their jobs at risk too. 
  • Also, Musk has already forgotten that not so long ago he had taken the responsibility of denying remote work requests. So, essentially, he wants managers to do his bad bidding for him. 

And now, due to the mess, a disabled employee is suing Twitter over Elon Musk's ban on WFH.

  • Dmitry Borodaenko, an engineering manager who was fired from Twitter this week for not coming to the office, had slapped a class action suit against the company. Borodaenko's disability makes him vulnerable to COVID-19, according to the complaint.

  • Lawsuits for Musk are also piling up separately. This time, eight former SpaceX employees are suing Musk for firing them for being critical of him in an open letter. 
  • Elon Musk is not happy over the boxes and boxes of lawsuits against him being towed into court. So he is now saying that the American class-action suit is actually regressive, needs reforms, and only 'taxes' the American people. What an inconvenience it must be for billionaires!

The trouble for Elon over Twitter is not over: Seven Democratic senators have demanded an anti-trust probe into Elon Musk over the handling of user data at Twitter. 

  • On the other side of the planet, the EU is planning to summon Elon Musk to hear about his plans for Twitter and remind him of Europe's strict tech rules. They want to see Musk in person in Brussels. 

Anyways, with Twitter's roughly 2,900 remaining employees, it needs to be seen how many will remain after this turbulent week and whether the social media platform (beloved to many including Musk) will survive.

Last updated: November 18, 2022 | 10:19
IN THIS STORY
    Please log in
    I agree with DailyO's privacy policy