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Twitter Offices Closed After Elon Musk Forced Staff to Work OT or Leave

2022-11-18 , 3:45 pm

Linking up to the drama that Elon Musk created on 16 Nov, where he gave employees a chance to stay or leave, Twitter offices are now closed to all employees until 21 Nov.

According to sources cited by CNA, employees who were working in the office on 17 Nov were allegedly kicked out by the building’s security guards.

Employees were given a choice

In a message that Elon Musk sent to Twitter staff on 16 Nov, employees were asked to choose between two options.

Firstly, employees can decide to leave the company and take a severance package of three months’ pay.

Secondly, employees can decide to stay in the company but would have to work long hours and at high intensity. He further added that only exceptional efforts will constitute a passing grade.

In addition to the options given, Musk said that those who did not choose an option by the evening of 17 Nov will be considered to have quit the company.

At the end of the message, the words “Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful” can be seen.

Office Closed Till 21 Nov

Following the ultimatum he had given, Twitter announced that it will be closing its office until 21 Nov. Badge access will also be cut during this time.

In a poll conducted on the app Blind, around 76 out of 180 people chose the answer “taking exit option, I’m free”.

Around 52 people chose to the option to stay with the company.

Musk Allegedly Asked Top Employees to Stay

According to an ex-employee who is still in touch with current employees, Elon Musk gathered the top employees in the office and tried to convince them to stay.

However, as of the time of writing, it is unclear how many employees actually chose the option to stay.

Bugs May Soon be Visible

Many who chose to depart are the engineers who are responsible for fixing bugs and preventing service breakdowns.

This alarmed employees as many questioned the stability of the application.

On 18 Nov, an insider source mentioned that the Twitter app used by employees began to slow down and that the public Twitter app may soon face the same issue.

According to Downdetector, a website to track app outages, reports of Twitter being down rose at an alarming rate from less than 50 to about 350 reports.