Twitter employees are reportedly leaving the company in droves as a drawn-out legal battle with Elon Musk contributes to increased animosity toward top brass.
Twitter has contended with higher-than-normal employee turnover as its board attempts to force Musk to complete his $44 billion takeover of the company by court order. The proceedings have resulted in intense public scrutiny of Twitter ahead of the trial in October.
“So many people have left that they won’t even need to do more layoffs,” a former employee told Insider.
One current Twitter employee said that workers have lost respect for top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, over the company’s response to Musk’s takeover, according to the outlet. Dozens of workers have purportedly left the company in the last several weeks alone.
“The general consensus among the majority of us is they’re doing a poor job,” one recently departed Twitter employee told the outlet.
The outgoing worker added that the phrase “fiduciary duty” – frequently invoked by Twitter executives while explaining their approach to dealing with Musk’s takeover bid – has become a running inside joke at the company.
The public spat with Musk, along with the ouster of several top executives and cost-cutting measures such as a hiring freeze, have contributed to a deteriorating mood in the workplace.
“The general morale is so low,” another worker who recently left Twitter said. “But for sure, people started to leave because of Elon.”
The internal grumbling has spilled onto Twitter’s external social media platform.
“Does anyone else feel like the number of employees leaving Twitter (as measured by ‘it’s my last day at Twitter’ tweets) is absurdly high?” one Twitter employee tweeted this week. “Please stay?? It’s sad to see so many people go!”
A Twitter spokesperson downplayed the report.
“Our attrition is slightly higher than best practice for normal macroeconomic times, but remains inline with current industry trends,” the spokesperson said.
Insider, which based its report on conversations with “half a dozen” current and former employees, noted that Twitter has begun to reclassify resignations based on whether the stalled deal with Musk contributed to the exit.
Turnover related to Musk turmoil is just one challenge for Twitter, which is also facing the market pressures that have weighed on other tech firms in recent months. Earlier this year, Twitter rescinded some job offers to new hires while dialing back on its expenses in response to the difficult conditions.
Preliminary proceedings are already underway in Delaware Chancery Court ahead of the trial this fall. Twitter wants Musk to buy the company at the original $44 billion price, while the billionaire has argued the firm withheld key information about the number of spam bots within its user base.