Elon Musk-led Twitter began a long-dreaded and drastic round of layoffs on Friday — and numerous workers took to the social media site to confirm they were caught in the bloodbath.
Company officials began informing laid-off employees about their fate via an email message on Friday morning as Musk scrambles to cut costs at the struggling firm.
Roughly half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees were expected to lose their jobs during the culling — with some workers claiming they had lost access to systems overnight.
“Looks like I’m unemployed y’all. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack,” tweeted Simon Balmain, a former senior community manager at Twitter. “#OneTeam forever. Loved you all so much. So sad it had to end this way.”
Balmain, who was based in the United Kingdom but working Los Angeles hours, elaborated on his ouster in an interview with the BBC.
“Everyone got an email saying that there was going to be a large reduction in headcount, and then around an hour later, folks started getting their laptops remotely wiped and access to Slack and Gmail revoked,” Balmain said.
Rachel Bonn, a marketing manager at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, said she had lost laptop access despite being eight months pregnant, even as she raises a 9-month-old child.
Rumman Chowdhury, whose LinkedIn account noted her title was director of machine learning ethics at Twitter, posted a screenshot showing a failed log-in attempt on her work account.
“Imagine feeling relief that you’re the one on the receiving end of the thanos snap,” Chowdhury added, referring to the villain in the Marvel’s “Avengers” movies.
“Well, it’s been real,” tweeted Lauren Pinnella Traylor, a now-former onboarding support lead at Twitter. “The official (and very dehumanizing) layoff email has been received. The most amazing job with the incredible #OneTeam. The best may be yet to come, but for now, I’m absolutely gutted.”
Twitter’s head of internal communications, Julie Steele, also indicated she had been laid off.
“Twitter is so special. After 4 yrs, I’m leaving with the fullest [heart], experiences I never imagined, and unbreakable bonds with so many Tweeps,” Steele tweeted. “My head is held high, knowing I gave it my absolute all. @TwitterComms: We have so much to be proud of. Time to fly even higher!”
Some ousted Twitter workers have already filed suit against Musk and the company, alleging they did not receive adequate notice of the cuts.
Twitter employees received a memo from the company late Thursday acknowledging the layoffs were imminent.
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the message said. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
“We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted,” the message added.
Twitter also indicated it would temporarily close its offices as a safety precaution during the mass layoffs.
The pink slips were widely expected following multiple reports in recent months that Musk had privately told investors he planned to slash costs once the deal closed. The billionaire had also grumbled that he had “obviously overpaid” to acquire the company at $54.20 per share.
On Friday, Musk revealed that Twitter has already lost a “massive” amount of revenue due to activist pressure on advertisers. The Twitter CEO is pushing an $8-per-month subscription service in an effort to bolster the company’s income streams.
Aside from the layoffs, Musk reportedly plans to nix Twitter’s remote work policy, as well as monthly companywide “days of rest” for staffers.