Report: Musk to lay off 50% of Twitter staff, reverse work-from-home policy

Musk to cut half of Twitter jobs and end remote work for the rest, report says

Musk told staff he won’t cut 75% of jobs—it will reportedly be 50% instead.

Jon Brodkin – Nov 3, 2022 10:58 am | 1.1k

Credit: Aurich Lawson

Workers may have to relocate quickly

In June, Musk held a virtual town hall with Twitter staff where he reportedly said he would let “exceptional” employees work at home if he completed his then-pending acquisition of the social network. “If someone can only work remotely, and they’re exceptional, it wouldn’t make sense to fire them,” he said. Musk reportedly pointed out at the meeting that the work at Twitter is different from the work at Tesla, saying, “Tesla makes cars, and you can’t make cars remotely.”

Axios also reported the work-from-home news, writing that Twitter “plans to require its remaining staffers to return to physical offices full time… sources inside the company say that many employees can’t or won’t be willing to relocate, resulting in additional attrition beyond the layoffs.” Employees who were hired to work remotely during the pandemic would have to decide quickly whether to stay on and could be given “as little as 60 days” to relocate to an area close to a Twitter office, the Axios report said.

Before Musk, Twitter leadership encouraged employees to work wherever they felt comfortable doing so. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees in March that while all company offices were reopening, “the decisions about where you work, whether you feel safe traveling for business, and what events you attend, should be yours. As we open back up, our approach remains the same. Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work, and that includes working from home full-time forever.”

According to the Bloomberg report, senior personnel on Twitter product teams “were asked to target a 50 percent reduction in headcount… Layoff lists were drawn up and ranked based on individuals’ contributions to Twitter’s code during their time at the company.” Musk reportedly brought in “engineers and director-level staff from Tesla” to help assess the layoff lists.

Impending layoffs a hot topic inside Twitter

Musk immediately fired Agrawal and several other high-ranking executives after he completed the purchase of Twitter a week ago. After that, “a few employees with director and vice president jobs were cut,” Bloomberg wrote. Moreover, “after the [plans for] layoffs were sorted, Twitter Chief Accounting Officer Robert Kaiden left the company, becoming one of the last pre-Musk C-suite executives to depart,” the article said.

A Washington Post article said Twitter staff became aware of the planned 50 percent reduction on Wednesday despite not getting any official word from leadership:

By day’s end, word had spread across the company that layoffs—half the staff—would probably come Friday, and that Musk would require Twitter’s remaining employees to return to the office full-time. But that word didn’t come from Musk, or anyone on his leadership team. It came via Blind, the anonymous workplace gossip site that some Twitter employees say has become their best, and often only, source of information about what’s going on inside the company in the chaotic, surreal week since Musk acquired it for $44 billion.

“Since Musk closed the deal on Oct. 27, employees say, they have not received a single official communication from anyone in a leadership position at the company,” The Washington Post article also said. “They have not been told that Musk completed the purchase, that their CEO and top executives were summarily fired, or that Musk dissolved the board and installed himself as chief executive.”