Chaos, Confusion Reign Across Twitter Offices Ahead of Layoffs

Fear and dread unfold throughout Twitter places of work on Thursday as 7,500 workers from San Francisco to Singapore feared for job cuts that have been deliberate to hit about half of the workers, in line with present and former workers and message board posts shared with Reuters.

Since billionaire Elon Musk took over final week, he has saved workers at nighttime. He has not addressed the workers or laid out his plans for the way forward for the corporate, leaving employees to check message boards, information experiences and tweets by Musk and his advisers for clues about their destiny, a number of workers mentioned.

Managers have been forbidden from calling workforce conferences or speaking straight with workers, one senior Twitter worker mentioned, including that they have been being monitored.

“It feels like we’re working among the Gestapo,” they mentioned.

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Employees have largely stopped posting on inner Slack channels for concern of reprisal from new bosses, with many as an alternative taking to venting in encrypted messaging apps and the devoted Twitter firm channel on the app Blind, which gives an area for workers to share data anonymously.

“I’m really worried tweeps,” a Twitter staffer wrote Thursday on Blind, which verifies workers by way of their work electronic mail addresses. Twitter colleagues typically refer to one another as “tweeps.”

The remark solely scratched the floor of the darkish and apprehensive temper contained in the social media firm now managed by the Tesla Inc chief government. Employees are ready to listen to if they’ll nonetheless have jobs on Friday, when layoffs are anticipated to start, in line with hypothesis amongst workers.

Waiting for the axe

Some Twitter workers have stopped taking calls or responding to emails from shoppers hounding them for data, as a result of they didn’t know in the event that they nonetheless had jobs, one worker advised Reuters.

Others raced to fulfill deadlines by Friday US time, once they anticipated the axe to fall, one other worker mentioned. One supervisor tweeted of a photograph of herself sleeping on the ground of the workplace in a silver sleeping bag.

While some anxious about annual bonuses or how they might be notified of layoffs, others rushed to use for jobs at different firms. International workers fretted in regards to the standing of their visas. One worker sought recommendation on Blind on whether or not it was price mentioning Twitter on their resume.

Employees who spoke with Reuters mentioned they’re studying about modifications at their firm by observing their work calendars and screenshots of debate from managers, not from official communication from Musk or different leaders.

One worker confirmed that “days of rest,” that are extremely fashionable company-wide days off, have been faraway from calendars for the remainder of the 12 months.

“Give us the details,” a Google worker wrote in a Blind submit directed at Twitter workers.

“It’s worse than everything you’re reading. Much worse,” answered a Twitter worker.

© Thomson Reuters 2022