Elon Musk took over Twitter in October
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Twitter has reportedly closed its offices without warning, locking staff out until next week.
Hundreds of employees are thought to be leaving the beleaguered social media giant following an ultimatum from new owner Elon Musk that employees sign up for “long hours at high intensity,” or leave.
A message has now been sent to Twitter staff saying: “Effective immediately, we are temporarily closing our office buildings and all badge access will be suspended. Offices will reopen on Monday, November 21st.
“Thank you for your flexibility. Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.
Email to Twitter staff saying offices are closed till Monday.
— James Clayton (@JamesClayton5) November 18, 2022
"I didn’t want to work for someone who threatened us over email multiple times" says one employee who's just resigned pic.twitter.com/Xd9s36f0ru
“We look forward to working with you on Twitter’s exciting future.”
Security officers began “kicking employees out of the office” on Thursday evening, one source told news agency Reuters.
The hashtag #RIPTwitter was trending on Twitter on Friday morning, as users specualted over the social media site’s future.
Earlier this week, Musk gave employees a Thursday evening deadline to decide whether they want to be part of a “breakthrough Twitter 2.0” – but warned staff they would need to be “extremely hardcore” to remain part of the company.
The billionaire, who took the reins at the firm last month, wrote to employees on Wednesday to warn them they would need to work “long hours at a high intensity” to ensure the company’s success.
Musk already fired much of Twitter’s full-time workforce in a brutal email on November 4, with a number of senior leaders responsible for cybersecurity and regulation also departing in the past fortnight.
A poll on the workplace app Blind - which verifies employees through their work email addresses and allows them to share information anonymously - surveyed Twitter staff following Musk’s demands.
Of the 180 employees surveyed, 42 per cent selected the answer: “Taking exit option, I’m free!”
A quarter said they had chosen to stay “reluctantly,” and only 7% of the poll participants said they “clicked yes to stay, I’m hardcore.”
Musk took to Twitter late on Thursday and said that he was not worried about resignations as “the best people are staying.”
And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Amid the flood of resignations, he also added that Twitter has hit all-time high in usage.
“And we just hit another all time high in Twitter usage...”, he said in a tweet, without elaborating.
Twitter, which has lost many of its communication team members, did not respond to a request for comment.
