Elon Musk Slams Twitter Employees With Ultimatum: Prepare to Work 'Extremely Hardcore' or Leave by Thursday The billionaire sent out a memo to employees late Tuesday outlining his vision for the future of employment in the company.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has led to a complete overhaul of internal systems and external products, including mass layoffs and voluntary resignations of top executives and employees who are not privy to Musk's vision for the future of the social media platform.
On Tuesday evening, a leaked memo, titled "A Fork In the Road," was obtained by The Washington Post and quickly shared across social media and other outlets, showing just how intensely he plans to continue his reign as Chief Twit.
In the note, Musk refers to his future plan for the company as "Twitter 2.0" and warned employees that they are expected to be on board — or they can find work elsewhere.
"We will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade," the memo said.
The billionaire went on to explain that the majority of the new Twitter will be "engineering-driven" and although design and project management roles will still be vital, employees working directly with code "will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway."
Musk closed the letter by giving employees an ultimatum — sign a Google form indicating they agree and wish to become a part of "Twitter 2.0" by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday or be terminated and granted three months of severance.
The memo doesn't come as a complete surprise after reports of employees being overworked and terminated for talking negatively about Musk's practices have been pouring in.
Earlier this month, a photo of Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, went viral after she was seen sleeping on the floor of her office in a sleeping bag captioned "when your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines."
When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork https://t.co/UBGKYPilbD
— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022
Prior to that, rumors had been swirling that employees were working 12+ hour long days and not being paid overtime for their dedication, fueling the fire that has made his takeover of Twitter anything but smooth sailing.
Musk, however, seems to not be phased by the complaints.
"Twitter feels increasingly alive," the billionaire Tweeted on Sunday.
Read Musk's full memo to employees below.
