Elon Musk has begun cutting Twitter's workforce in half, but faces a class action lawsuit
The Chief Twit of Twitter has begun laying off Twitter staff after buying the company for $44 billion
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Twitter layoffs
😣 Almost 50% of Twitter’s 7,500 employees are expected to be laid off
📧 Employees will receive an email if they are affected and will lose access to offices
🤰 A pregnant Twitter employee has shared that she is one of many layoffs
💰 Musk has recently revealed Twitter will charge $8 a month for verification but editing tweets could soon be free
The tumultuous Twitter takeover by Elon Musk continues to send shockwaves across the company, as the South African billionaire has begun laying off thousands of employees.
The move comes as Twitter aims at “reducing our global workforce” and is being done to “ensure the company’s success moving forward”, according to an unsigned internal memo seen by The Verge.
The memo outlines that those who are impacted by the job cuts will receive an email by 9 am PST / 12 pm ET on November 4, and those that do will also lose access to the company’s offices.
Hundreds of Twitter employees who have been let go have expressed their sadness on Twitter, but also highlighted the ruthlessness of the layoffs. One of those affected was Rachel Bonn, who worked on product marketing at Twitter. Rachel shared that she’s eight months pregnant, has a nine-month-old, and has now been cut off from accessing her company laptop.
You can read the memo Twitter employees received below:
Team,
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.
Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email. By 9AM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including your spam folder.
- If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email.
- If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email.
- If you do not receive an email from twitter-hr@ by 5PM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, please email peoplequestions@twitter.com.
To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.
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.
We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process.
Thank you.
The mass layoffs come after Musk announced Twitter Blue will soon cost $8 a month (not $20 as originally feared) to allow people to pay to be verified. However, it seems like the billionaire may be in hot water over how the layoffs have been handled.
Twitter is being sued by the affected workers (thanks, Bloomberg), who claim the company hasn’t provided enough notice under US federal law. Many found out they’d lost their jobs when they realized they’ve been locked out of their work accounts on Thursday.
The lawsuit has been brought on behalf of five Twitter employees so far, with one claiming they were fired on November 1. The class action lawsuit makes reference to how Musk handled sackings at Tesla, where the car manufacturer sought to obtain a full release from its obligations under the Warn Act by offering severance of one of two weeks’ pay.
“Plaintiffs here are reasonably concerned that, absent court intervention, Twitter will engage in similar behavior and seek releases from laid-off employees without informing them of their rights or the pendency of this case,” the filing states.
Musk has recently tweeted that Twitter has seen “a massive drop in revenue” and accused activists of pressuring advertisers to pull their support from the social media platform. Musk also said that they’re “trying to destroy free speech in America.”
