Elon Musk, the often-controversial richest man in the world, has reportedly laid out plans to show 75% of Twitter’s employees the door as soon as he takes charge of the social media platform.
Just weeks after he announced his intentions to effectively eradicate all other social media platforms with his own “Everything App,” Elon Musk now plans to eradicate three-quarters of Twitter’s payroll, according to The Washington Post.
Said Twitter employees are safe, for now, as Elon will only incite the mass firing once he formally takes over Twitter and signs over the $44 billion he promised to pay in April 2022. The takeover bid in itself has been the source of controversy, as Elon initially wanted to back out of the deal, but a contract is a contract, and so he will still have to stump up the cash. The deadline has been set for October 28th.
Bloomberg claims (via The Verge) that Twitter “froze its employee’s equity awards,” which has been taken as an assumed sign the deal will indeed go ahead. It’s also claimed, via anonymous sources to The Washington Post, that Twitter had always planned to lay off a good chunk of its staff as soon as Mr Musk assumed office.
However, these plans reportedly only wanted to say sayonara to around a quarter of Twitter’s payroll, saving the company some $800 million per annum. Elon is expected to go much further, which the former head of Twitter’s spam and health metrics said was “unimaginable,” in an interview with The Post.
What does this mean for you if you’re a Twitter user? According to The Verge, the lack of bodies at Twitter could result in “more hacks”… Considering one of Musk’s major sticking points with Twitter has been the lack of security and the rampant number of bots on the platform, it seems that laying off so many employees would be counter-productive to his goals.
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It could also potentially lead to even more staff choosing to walk away, as Elon is said to want to introduce stack ranking, a process that requires each unit’s management team review and rate an employee’s performance. It’s said this can lead to competition, rather than collaboration, between staff.
Perhaps Elon’s master plan is for Twitter to implode on itself, forcing people to move to his own app in the future?
The Tesla founder just can’t seem to keep himself away from the headlines. If it’s not laying off the bulk of his staff, it’s releasing a fragrance that smells like burnt hair (which has now sold out). Just another day in Elonland…
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