Twitter shuts offices following new wave of resignations, the consequence of Musk's ultimatum

Offices shut due to a fear of sabotage.

Hannah Martens | November 18, 2022, 06:26 PM

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Twitter offices are temporarily closing once again, and employees' badge access have been suspended until Monday, Nov. 21, sources told Reuters.

Security officers have even gone to the extent of kicking employees out of the office on Thursday evening, Nov. 17, 2022.

Media reports suggest the closure was done out of fear that departing employees might engage in sabotage.

This comes after a new wave of Twitter employees have resigned, following an ultimatum issued by Elon Musk on Nov. 16, 2022.

Musk sent out an email titled, "A Fork in the Road", to the remaining employees of Twitter.

It said in order to build "a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world", employees are required to be "extremely hardcore".

Musk went on to say that "only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade".

This meant that employees were meant to work "long hours at high intensity" or leave the company.

Those who leave will be given a three-month severance package.

Let that sink in

It is unclear how many employees chose to stay, but the estimate is hundreds of Twitter employees chose to leave the company.

In a poll on Blind, the workplace app that verifies employees through their work email address and shares information anonymously, 42 per cent of 180 chose the answer, "Taking exit option, I'm free!", reported Reuters.

A quarter said they have "reluctantly" chosen to stay, while only 7 per cent of the poll participants said they "clicked yes to stay, I'm hardcore".

Musk is not worried about his employees leaving.

In fact, he tweeted that he was not worried about resignations as "the best people are staying" and that Twitter is facing an "all-time high in Twitter usage".


According to one of Reuters' sources, Musk is working with top employees to try and convince them to stay.

However, in an email to staff on Nov. 17, Musk appeared to have softened his earlier tone, writing that "all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring you are making an excellent contribution".

Workers would also be expected to have "in-person meetings with your colleagues on a reasonable cadence, ideally weekly, but not less than once per month".

#RIPTwitter

With the new wave of resignations from Twitter employees, Twitter may break.

One source told Reuters that the Twitter platform used by employees began to slow down on Nov. 17.

It is estimated that the public version of Twitter is at risk of breaking during the night (on Nov. 18, Singapore time).

Reports of Twitter outages have also risen from less than 50 to 350 reports.

"If it does break, there is no one left to fix things in many areas," one person told Reuters.

#RIPTwitter is currently trending in Singapore on Twitter.

Calling out Musk

With the Twitter offices in San Fransico closed, someone took to the skies and projected multiple messages on the side of the Twitter headquarters.

These messages were allegedly projected by someone who calls himself a "projection activist".

Mothership has reached out to Twitter Singapore for comments.

Top photos from Pixabay and Musk's Twitter