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Twitter shuts down offices as Elon Musk’s new demands spark mass resignations

By Nithya Bose in Twitter/X News, posted November 18, 2022

Twitter faces a mounting crisis as hundreds of staff have rejected Elon Musk’s latest ultimatum.

The new boss has told employees to work "long hours at high intensity" or leave.

As a result of departures, the firm has now temporarily shut down its offices, risking its ability to continue operations.

After Mr. Musk announced the deadline for the new mandate, #RIPTwitter, #TwitterDown, Mastodon and Myspace were trending on the site.

It is expected that hundreds of the existing staff opted to leave.

Several engineers involved in bug fixes and preventing service disruptions have already left, which raises concerns about the platform's stability in the face of staff exits.

Current and former employees said it has spurred hasty discussions among managers over who should be urged to rejoin.

Musk relaxed a return-to-office order he announced a week ago as the number of staff reluctant to sign was more than expected.

He assured them that if their managers said they were making "an excellent contribution," they would be able to work remotely.

Twitter later declared via email that "our office buildings" would be closed and employee badge access would be disabled until Monday, November 21.

A reliable source said the version of the Twitter app used by staff began to slow down on Thursday evening.

The website DownDetector observed a large increase in user reports of site difficulties.

The news sparked an outburst of grief on the network, prompting many users to link to their Instagram or Mastodon profiles as an alternative.

A current and a recently departed employee said Musk was in talks with certain key personnel to try to convince them to remain.

A former worker said approximately 40 Twitter employees left in a confidential Signal chat with roughly 50 others.

In addition, around 360 people reportedly joined a new channel labeled "voluntary-layoff" in a private Slack group for Twitter's current and former workers.

A separate Blind survey asked workers to estimate how many would leave Twitter based on their views.

Over half of respondents predicted that at least half of the staff will quit.

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Though it is unknown how many choose to stay, the figures illustrate some employees' unwillingness to continue at a firm.

It is the upshot of the termination of half of its staff, including senior management, and a severe shift in culture to emphasize long hours and a fast pace.

In an obvious jibe at Musk's drive for "hardcore" personnel, some resigning engineers labeled their Twitter bios as "softcore engineers" or "ex-hardcore engineers."

Source: The Guardian

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