More Twitter workers flee after Musk’s ‘hardcore’ ultimatum
Twitter continued to bleed engineers and other workers after new owner Elon Musk gave them a choice to pledge to “hardcore” work or resign with severance pay.
Hundreds of employees signalled they were leaving ahead of a Thursday deadline set by Musk, posting a salute emoji or other symbols familiar to Twitter workers on the company's internal Slack messaging board.
However, it was not always possible to tell if they were doing so because they were leaving or out of solidarity with departing colleagues, according to a current employee who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, and also a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality required to get severance pay.
Some took to Twitter to announce they were signing off after the deadline.
A number of employees took to a private forum outside of the company's messaging board to discuss their planned departure, asking questions about how it might jeopardise their US visas or if they would get the promised severance pay, according to an employee fired earlier this week.
Twitter leadership sent an unsigned email after the deadline announcing that offices would be closed and employee badge access disabled until Monday.
No reason was given, according to an employee who took the voluntary layoff Thursday and spoke on condition of anonymity.
While it's not clear exactly how many of Twitter's already-decimated staff took Musk up on his offer, the newest round of departures means the platform is continuing to lose workers just at it is gearing up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, one of the busiest events on Twitter that can overwhelm its systems if things go haywire.
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