Topline
Twitter’s new CEO and owner Elon Musk scrapped the company’s remote work policy and ordered all employees to return to the office in his first email to staffers since taking over the company, Bloomberg reported, marking further impact to the firm’s workforce after nearly half of its staff was laid off last week.
Elon Musk has reportedly scrapped Twitter’s remote work policy.
Key Facts
According to Bloomberg, Musk’s first email sent to staffers late on Wednesday night warned of “difficult times ahead” for the company, adding that there was no way to “sugarcoat the message.”
Musk also ended Twitter’s lenient remote work policy that has been in place since the start of the pandemic and allowed employees to work from anywhere, corroborating earlier reports.
In his email, Twitter’s new CEO reportedly said the policy change will go into effect immediately and employees are expected to be in the office “at least 40 hours per week.”
Any exemptions to the remote work policy change will have to be personally approved by Musk himself, the report added.
As advertisers flee Twitter over content moderation concerns, Musk wants $8 per month subscriptions from the new Twitter Blue to make up half of Twitter’s total revenue—a far cry from the current situation where 90% of the company’s revenue comes from ads.
Forbes has reached out to Twitter for comment.
Key Background
Musk’s first official email to Twitter employees comes days after the company laid off nearly half of its workforce, gutting several important teams in the process. The entire layoff process was so chaotic that the company had to eventually ask some of the laid-off workers to come back to the company. People who were asked to come back included those who were reportedly fired “by mistake” and others whose skillset the new management did not anticipate would be necessary to help build some of the new features being demanded by Musk. Twitter was also hit with a class action lawsuit last week accusing the company of violating federal and state labor laws by failing to give the laid-off workers adequate notice. Apart from canceling remote work, Musk previously also scrapped Twitter’s “days of rest” policy which was a company-wide extra off day every month that went into effect during the pandemic.
Tangent
Musk has been vocal about his distaste for remote work several times this year. In June, the Tesla CEO scrapped remote work at the electric car company and ordered its executive staff to work a minimum “40 hours a week” a week from office or leave. When asked on Twitter about people wanting to work remotely, Musk responded, “they should pretend to work somewhere else.” In his email to Tesla workers Musk reportedly 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.” Speaking at an event in May, Musk criticized American workers, stating: “People are trying to avoid going to work at all.” The billionaire’s dig at U.S. workers came after he praised Tesla’s factory workers in China, who he said were willing to work as late as 3 a.m. or not even leave the factory if needed.
Further Reading
Musk’s First Email to Twitter Staff Ends Remote Work (Bloomberg)
Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff
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