‘#R.I.P Twitter’ Trends As Musk’s Ultimatum To Staff Reportedly Triggers Exodus And Offices Close

Topline

Confusion reigns at Twitter as the company closed its offices and hundreds of employees opted to leave rather than sign on to Elon Musk’s demand they work longer hours, the latest in a series of chaotic developments as concerns grow that the billionaire’s leadership is putting the social media platform’s future at risk.

Twitter employees reportedly resigned rather than agree to Elon Musk’s demand they work longer hours … [+] at high intensity.

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Key Facts

Hundreds of Twitter’s remaining employees reportedly resigned rather than agree to Musk’s “extremely hardcore” ultimatum to work long hours at high intensity, which had a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The social media company abruptly told employees its offices would be closed until Monday, though it did not give a reason why.

The scale of the departure has reportedly sparked confusion over who should still be allowed access and the Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer said the closure is a stalling tactic to solve the issue and assuage the fears of Musk and his team, who are “terrified employees are going to sabotage the company.”

The exodus means multiple systems vital to ensuring the platform stays working now have just one or two—or, in some cases, zero—engineers servicing them, the Washington Post reported and the Verge said multiple critical teams “have now either completely or near-completely resigned,” both citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

The latest Twitter turmoil sparked fears among users the platform could soon go dark, with many sending out goodbye tweets and “Goodbye Twitter” and “RIPTwitter” trending on the site.

Musk, ever the troll, was seemingly unperturbed by the situation, posting memes joking about the platform’s death and saying he is “not super worried” by the departures as “the best people are staying.”

What To Watch For

Though Musk says he is not concerned about the scale of the departures, there are signs that they are higher than expected. Before Thursday’s deadline, Twitter reportedly walked back its earlier demands that workers abandon working remotely. Previously, the firm asked workers it had fired to return as management belatedly realized their work or expertise was needed. Workers told the Washington Post and the Verge it is likely the platform will start to break soon, with those needed to repair problems absent or overwhelmed.

What We Don’t Know

It’s unclear exactly how many employees remain at Twitter. The company had more than 7,000 employees when Musk took over, a headcount he said was financially unsustainable. The billionaire fired senior leadership and Twitter’s entire board during the early stages of his leadership and laid off around half of the workforce. Musk has since fired staffers who disagree with him, sometimes publicly. Estimates of the number of remaining employees vary, though figures generally sit within the range of 2,000 to 2,500 people. Precise figures could be hard to attain in light of reports that most of the human resources team has left as well.

Tangent

Musk, without evidence, tweeted “record numbers of users” were logging in “to see if Twitter is dead” on Thursday. “Ironically making it more alive than ever.”

Forbes Valuation

$191.4 billion. That’s the estimated net worth of Elon Musk, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker. Musk, known for cofounding and leading electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunneling firm Boring Company, is the richest person on the planet. He purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October.