Elon Musk starts Twitter layoffs, sends email to employees

Twitter’s 7,500 employees have been bracing for a mass layoff since Elon Musk took over last week. According to a company email, the layoffs will begin today, Friday. Musk plans to cut the workforce more than just a week after his blockbuster purchase.

The company email confirmed that the Twitter layoff process would happen via email. At 9 a.m. PT on Friday, all employees will receive an email with the subject “Your Role at Twitter.”The social media company wrote an email they sent to the employees on Thursday.

Twitter wrote, “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”

Twitter human resources associate Lindsay Kander posted unprofessionally about herself crying uncontrollably in reaction to the #TwitterLayoffs led by @elonmusk. https://t.co/GAqOQ3oxNy pic.twitter.com/r2YAgZFMt2

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 4, 2022

Moreover, the company also informed the employees that they would receive a notification to their Twitter email if their employment was in jeopardy. While employees who will remain will receive a notification to their personal email. These emails will also include the next process if they are included in the layoffs. 

In addition, the social media giant also announced via email that the offices will be temporarily closed and “all badge access will be suspended.”The email continues, “We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted.”

Twitter Layoffs

Now-former Twitter employees shared on ABC News that they received an email confirming the layoff around midnight ET. According to them, they immediately had no access to their work-related emails and accounts. 

According to an investor and previous internal messages, approximately half of Twitter employees will lose their jobs. However, the final and total count of layoffs was still uncertain. On Thursday evening, when the email arrived, the employees posted heart and salute emojis in Slack, their messaging platform.

Hey Twitter employees getting laid off tomorrow! IMPORTANT INFO from a CA employment attorney (me):

CA's "WARN" law requires Twitter to give you 60 days notice of a massive layoff.

A layoff of 50+ employees within a 30 day period qualifies.

I know you didn't get that notice.

— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) November 4, 2022

Furthermore, on Thursday evening, some employees reported having no access to the company’s log-ins. It’s possibly preemptive of the employee’s status in the company. The company also started notifying some employees they had laid off early Friday morning.

Some of the emails The Times had seen depend on the employee’s country or region. One New York employee received an email confirming that he had lost his job. But, they will stay as an employee until a separation date in February. 

Elon Musk Twitter Acquisition

Twitter said in the email, “During this time, you will be on a Non-Working Notice period, and your access to Twitter systems will be deactivated.” Laid-off employees will receive severance details “within a week.” 

Billionaire Elon Musk finally closed the deal to purchase Twitter last week. His visit to Twitter’s HQ was a hint of the closed deal. He purchased the company at the original offer price of $54.20 per share. He bought the social media company at an estimated $44 billion.

Last week, Musk said that he would push any major account readjustment decisions and content moderation until after creating a new committee assigned to the issues.  He tweeted, “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

In addition, following the mass layoff, reports said that there was a lawsuit against Twitter. On Thursday, San Francisco federal court said that the company didn’t give the employees enough notice, which was against California law.