Employees at Twitter were required to adhere to Elon Musk’s new “hardcore” attitude. It seems like a lot of people are voting with their feet.
Since completing a deal to purchase the company for almost $44 billion on Oct. 27, Elon Musk, the company’s new owner and CEO, has made significant changes. After firing half the workforce, he issued the remaining workers an ultimatum: Either agree to work under his new, strict culture, or go. Many, it appears, made the decision to depart.
Even before Musk assumed control of Twitter, which he also operates for the automaker Tesla and the aerospace firm SpaceX, things were chaotic. He committed to buying the business in April, but when he tried to back out, Twitter sued him.
As #RIPTwitter became a trending topic on the platform in the US and other countries, Twitter users began to post farewell messages.
Ex-Twitter employees pitching investors next week. #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/aQe1Zpl2GT
— Pete Haas (@dimeford) November 18, 2022
Following the earlier-than-expected decision by hundreds of employees to leave the company, there were concerns about a possible site collapse. There is no longer a “skeletal team manning the system,” a former Twitter employee told The Washington Post.
JUST IN CASE this site goes down, my name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroya Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104. To all law enforcement entities, this is not an admission of guilt. I am speaking to my family now. #RIPTwitter #GoodByeTwitter pic.twitter.com/HuJOswzZSL
— Heisenberg (@roccodaboi) November 18, 2022
The employee predicted that Twitter “would continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will halt.”
It’s been a pleasure tweeting with y’all for the past 13 years. #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/XsLuMNi59A
— toby is the scranton strangler (@OhHELLNawl) November 18, 2022
Musk posted a meme on Twitter showing the Twitter logo on a tombstone.
At the end of the day, on November 17, the roughly 3,500 workers who remained at Twitter after thousands were let go had the decision to make: Continue working under Musk’s plan for an intense “Twitter 2.0” or quit with three months worth of severance money.
According to Fortune and Bloomberg, up to 75% of the remaining staff made the decision to leave, leaving it unclear how many people would still have access to the premises. According to The Verge, those who left included some “legendary” programmers and engineers.
On the same day, tech newsletter Platformer reported that the company had shut the doors to its San Francisco headquarters until November 21.
