Late last year, Neuman Vong was planning a trip to see family in Australia. He was working for Twitter at the time, adjusting to the workplace in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover. Vong had outlasted two culls—one in November that resulted in 50 percent of Twitter staff being laid off, and another later that month following an email from Musk that demanded employees commit to being "extremely hardcore."
Vong spoke with his interim manager and new team director in December about his upcoming trip. They indicated that it wouldn't be a problem for him to work from Australia remotely, so he left the U.S. in January, first visiting Singapore and then Malaysia. There, Vong got the news that he'd been laid off after all. His interim manager had been moved to another team and his director had been fired.
