Elon Musk says Twitter is a software and servers company at its heart and told employees they must decide by Thursday evening if they want to remain a part of the business, according to an email the new owner sent to Twitter workers.
Musk wrote that employees “will need to be extremely hardcore” to build “a breakthrough Twitter 2.0” and that long hours at high intensity will be needed for success. The ultimatum comes after Musk fired half the company’s employees, or 3,700 job cuts, in an effort to trim costs.
Musk said Twitter will be much more engineering-driven, with employees who write “great code” comprising the majority of the team. In recent days, the billionaire has come under fire for his management style at Twitter, including his recent decisions to fire staffers who disagree with him — sometimes publicly.
On Monday, Musk tweeted that he fired an engineer at the company who had aired a disagreement with him on Twitter about the social media service’s app. On Tuesday, tech publication Platformer reported that 20 engineers who had criticized Musk in internal Slack channels had been fired via email.
The Tesla CEO, who completed the $44 billion takeover of the San Francisco company in late October, is also moving to eliminate an untold number of contract jobs.
Musk asked workers to click yes on a link provided in the email if they want to be part of the “new Twitter.” He said that employees had until 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday to reply to the link. Employees who don’t reply by that time will receive three months of severance, according to the email.
“Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful,” Musk wrote.
