Twitter staff have sued Elon Musk for not giving them enough notice of sweeping layoffs, that began on Friday.
As part of his plan to drive down costs since acquiring the social media company for $44 billion, the world’s richest man plans to cut around 3,700 jobs – about half of Twitter’s workforce.
But employees say the company is eliminating workers without enough notice in violation of federal and California law, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court.
The company warned staff to brace for firing notices in a memo on Thursday night. It said all employees will receive an email alert by 9am Pacific time Friday letting them know whether they still have a job at the company.
Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021.
The company said its offices will be temporarily sealed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order ‘to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.’
‘If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home,’ the memo said. ‘In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.
‘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.’
Elon Musk ‘s (pictured) mass layoffs at Twitter have begun, with the company warning staff to brace for firing notices by email as it temporarily seals all its offices
Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021, and Musk (pictured on Halloween) reportedly plans to lay off up to half of them
Twitter (pictured: Its office in San Francisco) said its offices will be temporarily closed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order ‘to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.’
Staff who have been laid off will be notified of the next steps in a message to their personal email addresses with the subject line ‘Your Role at Twitter’, the memo said. Pictured: Library image of Twitter’s offices in New York
Twitter said its employees who are not affected by the layoffs will be notified via their work email addresses on Friday morning. Staff who have been laid off will be notified of the next steps in a message to their personal email addresses with the subject line ‘Your Role at Twitter’, the memo said.
‘Please check your email, including your spam folder,’ the memo advised.
‘We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.’
The notification of layoffs caps off a week of high-level purges by Musk, as he demanded deep cost cuts and imposed an aggressive new work ethic across the social media company.
He had already cleared out the company’s senior ranks, firing its chief executive and top finance and legal executives. Others, including those sitting atop the company’s advertising, marketing, and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week.
Prior to buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk tweeted that the company under his ownership ‘will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware.’
Last week he lamented in a tweet that ‘there seem to be 10 people “managing” for every one person coding.’
Musk wavered throughout his attempt to buy Twitter on how many positions he would eliminate, originally saying as many as 75 percent of the company’s workers (5,625) would be cut, before some reports suggested it would actually be 25 percent (1,875).
The 3,700 cuts now being touted would amount to about half the staff, and would see them follow out five high-level executives who have resigned in the past week.
The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter’s famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees.
Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company’s Slack channels to say goodbye, two employees told Reuters. Someone invited Musk to join the channel, the sources said.
Musk’s first week as Twitter’s owner has been marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be canceled mere hours later.
Managers have been forbidden from calling team meetings or communicating directly with staff, one senior Twitter employee said, adding that they were being monitored.
‘It feels like we’re working among the Gestapo,’ the person said.
Musk has also directed Twitter Inc’s teams to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message reviewed by Reuters.
Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company’s Slack channels to say goodbye. Twitter workers are seen above
Billionaire Elon Musk carries a sink into Twitter’s head office in San Francisco as he buys the social media company
Even as Musk cuts costs, he faces threats to Twitter’s revenue as a growing number of companies pause their advertising on the platform over concerns about whether it will remain ‘safe’ for brands.
‘We have currently paused paid support on Twitter and will continue to evaluate the situation,’ an Audi spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Thursday, one week after the completion of Musk’s $44 billion buyout.
Likewise, a spokesperson for General Mills, which also makes Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Häagen-Dazs, confirmed a pause, saying: ‘We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend.’
Carmakers appear especially worried about fair treatment under Musk, who is the CEO of rival Tesla, and last week General Motors announced it had ‘temporarily paused’ all paid advertising on Twitter.
As well, Oreo-maker Mondelez International and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have both paused their Twitter ad spending, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter.
Carmaker Audi and General Mills, the packaged-food titan behind Cheerios, have joined a growing list of companies halting their ad spending on Twitter under Elon Musk’s ownership
General Mills, which makes Cheerios, Pillsbury and Häagen-Dazs, confirmed a pause, saying: ‘We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend’
‘We have currently paused paid support on Twitter and will continue to evaluate the situation,’ an Audi spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Thursday
Spokespersons for Mondelez and Pfizer did not immediately respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com on Thursday evening.
Twitter has stopped responding to all press inquiries, except for the few that Musk answers by tweet.
Musk last week promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ and is now scrambling to convince advertisers that he will uphold the commitment.
Some advertisers have reportedly vowed to boycott Twitter for good if former president Donald Trump is allowed to return. Musk said on Wednesday it would be several weeks before a process is in place to reinstate banned accounts.
A media buyer at one major ad agency, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said the agency would meet with Musk this week to ask how the Tesla boss plans to handle misinformation on the social media platform.
The buyer also wanted to know how Musk’s pledge squared with his own actions, including one tweet over the weekend that spread a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.
Other topics include Musk’s plan to raise the cost of Twitter’s subscription service and serve ‘half as many ads,’ and who will serve as advertisers’ point of contact after a procession of senior executives, including Twitter’s ad chief, left the company since he took over.
The ad agency’s top clients are expected to join the meeting, the media buyer said.
Oreo-maker Mondelez International has also reportedly paused Twitter ad spending
After tweeting in 2019 about his dislike of advertising, Musk is now under pressure to avoid alienating the advertisers who contribute more than 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue.
He is spending his first week as CEO in New York, with venture capitalist friends joining him in meetings to reassure companies that contribute more than $5 billion annually to Twitter.
Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and podcast host who is assisting Musk in his first week of ownership, tweeted on Monday that Twitter had a ‘very productive day’ of meetings with advertisers and marketers.
Another media buyer who spoke with Reuters said their agency will not meet with Musk until he articulates a direction for Twitter or provides a substantive update on how the platform will serve advertisers.
Some clients have already begun to pause ad spending on Twitter this week, said the second media buyer, who declined to name the advertisers as the source was not authorized to do so.
The buyer said some clients had already pulled out of Twitter due to the months-long chaos around the deal, and some in response to concerns about child sexual abuse material on Twitter.
Jason Calacanis, who is assisting Musk in his first week of ownership, tweeted on Monday that Twitter had a ‘very productive day’ of meetings with advertisers
Musk took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or ‘political correctness’
IPG, an advertising holding company that represents major clients including Coca-Cola and American Express, has advised clients to pause their Twitter ads for the next week, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Even as Musk took meetings with major agencies and advertisers this week, he took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or ‘political correctness.’
Of more than two million votes, nearly 80 percent answered ‘freedom of speech.’
‘Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters,’ the media buyer said.
More marketers also took to LinkedIn to voice their concerns about Musk’s takeover of the platform.
‘Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this ‘free’ platform safe from hate speech, it’s not a platform brands can/should advertise on,’ said Allie Wassum, global director of social and integrated media for Jordan shoe brand, which is owned by Nike, in a post on Linkedin.
Wassum did not respond to a request for further comment.