Another Rash Of Layoffs Could Be Coming At Twitter

As if things couldn’t get any worse at TwitterTWTR
, Elon Musk has just given employees an ultimatum that they have until Thursday to decide whether to stay on “working long hours at high intensity” or take a buyout of three months severance pay.

Many are likely to take the buyout with all of the volatility at the company and Musk quickly changing rules such as employees now need to come into the office at least 40 hours per week. Many have already moved out of state after former CEO Jack Dorsey put in a work-at-home-forever policy. This gave employees the freedom to buy a home in a more affordable place and be more productive.

Musk told employees that anyone who didn’t click the link that “you want to be part of the new Twitter” by Thursday evening, the company would conclude that they have quit and their severance papers will be drawn up.

With half of the staff terminated and the vast majority of the former leadership team gone, it appears that he now wants to get rid of the remaining disgruntled employees, perhaps replacing them with employees from one of his other companies.

However, this is an extremely difficult task. The company has found on many occasions that parts of the system have broken down and there was no one left at the company who could fix the problem. Musk then told managers that they could hire people back who had left a gaping hole, but these people, although wanting their job back, certainly wouldn’t have high morale.

Notably, the respected ad sales team left and advertisers, used to one-on-one relationships that they trust, bailed in droves. Musk’s short-term solution—having one of his other companies, SpaceX, buy a major Twitter ad campaign for its Starlink service.

In an unrelated matter, we got some insight into Musk’s mind as he went to court to defend his massive compensation package received from Tesla.following a shareholder suit from Richard Tornetta who alleges excessive compensation for Musk while serving as CEO.

During sworn testimony, Musk stated that he does not want to be CEO of Tesla, Twitter SpaceX or any other company for that matter. He said that his CEO position at Twitter is temporary. “I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” he said.

He also addressed concerns some shareholders have had that Musk was deploying full-time employees at Tesla to work at Twitter while they were still on Tesla’s payroll. Musk responded that he only called on Tesla employees to assist him at Twitter on a “voluntary basis” and to work after hours. He said that no board member had called him to say doing this was a bad idea.

Still, all of this turmoil led Steve Strauss to write a column in USA Today on November 16 entitled “Musk’s 3-point plan for ruining a business.” There’s definitely never a dull moment at Twitter.