New Twitter CEO and owner Elon Musk has sent out his first company-wide email since taking over, demanding all workers who work remotely to return to the office immediately.
The email raises concerns for Twitter’s future and warns that there’s “no way to sugarcoat the message” regarding the recent wave of advertisers to abandon the platform, which would be quite significant for a business that depends on adverts for 90% of its revenue. According to the new guidelines, employees must now come to the office in person and work at least 40 hours every week.
With only two weeks of Twitter leadership under his belt, the new work schedule isn’t the only huge change. Musk ordered, only last week, that nearly half of Twitter’s employees and most of its executive suite were swept out, though it hasn’t been officially stated how many fell victim to the mass layoff, it’s estimated to be roughly half of the 7,500 workers, eviscerating several important teams in the process. The entire layoff procedure was so chaotic that the management eventually had to plead with some of the laid-off employees to return to the company.
According to Bloomsberg, prior to Musk’s entrance, Twitter already had a well-established work-from-anywhere system, which was most likely widely deployed and accepted during the pandemic. Musk’s apparent aversion to remote work was never a secret to the general public and is said to have been one of the first subjects raised with the Twitter workforce before buying the corporation.
Some people may recall that in June, Musk eliminated the remote work policy and demanded that his own Tesla executive team work a minimum of 40 hours per week or leave. Musk is said to have added: “The office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
Musk chastised American workers in May when speaking at an event, saying: “People are trying to avoid going to work at all.” The billionaire’s jab at American workers came after he complimented Tesla’s factory workers in China, who he said were willing to work until 3 a.m. or not leave the workplace at all if necessary. He stated that he would only offer exceptions on a case-by-case basis, as he is doing currently.
This month, Bloomberg News reported that he had also removed “days of rest,” a monthly company-wide day off that had been instituted during the pandemic, off the calendars of Twitter employees. Its termination underlined Musk’s dissatisfaction with Twitter’s current working culture.
“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Musk wrote in his missive to employees. In a separate email, he added that “over the next few days, the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”
It’s safe to say that Twitter will probably never be the same. The billionaire has already made his mark on the social media site in just two weeks but whether these drastic changes will end up being beneficial or harmful for the platform is still up for debate.
