Hundreds are expected to leave Twitter following an ultimatum by Elon Musk, the new owner. He demanded that employees sign up for “long and intense hours” or they would be fired.
A poll was conducted on the workplace app Blind. This verifies employees using their email addresses. It allows the anonymous sharing of information. 42% of 180 respondents chose to answer “Taking exit option, I’m free!”
One-quarter of respondents said they were reluctant to leave, and only 7% said they would stay.
Musk met with top employees to convince them to stay. One employee, a former employee, and a recently deceased employee spoke of Musk’s meeting.
It is not clear how many employees chose to stay. However, these numbers show the reluctance to stay at a company where Musk has had to fire half of its top management and has ruthlessly changed the culture to emphasize long hours at a fast pace.
According to two sources, the company informed employees that it would close its offices and restrict badge access until Monday. One source claims that security officers began to kick employees out of the office Thursday evening.
Twitter has lost many members of its communication team and did not respond when asked for comments.
Nearly 40 of the 50 Twitter employees who participated in a private chat on Signal said that they had decided to quit, according to a former employee.
According to a source familiar with the Slack Group, around 360 people joined a private Slack channel called “voluntary-layoff” in a group for Twitter’s former and current employees.
Blind also asked staff to predict how many people would abandon Twitter using their perceptions. Over half of respondents believed that at least 50% would leave.
Twitter was overwhelmed with salute emojis and blue hearts on Thursday as employees of Twitter said goodbye.
Over two dozen Twitter employees from the United States and Europe had left their posts on Twitter by 6 p.m. Eastern. However, each resignation was not independently verified.
Musk sent an email to Twitter employees early Wednesday morning, explaining that he wanted to “go forward” and create a breakthrough Twitter 2.0. He also stated that he was determined to succeed in a highly competitive world.
The email asked staff members to respond “yes” to the request to stay on board. The email stated that those who didn’t respond by Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern would be considered to have quit the job and would receive a severance package.
Employees scrambled for solutions as the deadline neared.
Twitter’s one-team decision to leave the company was made by an employee, who told Reuters that he had been part of the team.
Musk’s request for employees to be “hardcore” was mocked by several engineers who, according to their Twitter profiles, described themselves as “softcore” or “exhardcore” on Thursday.