As the company temporarily closed its offices to staff, Twitter users began saying goodbye and linking to accounts on other platforms. #RIPTwitter, #TwitterDown, Mastodon and Myspace were all trending on the platform after the deadline on Musk’s ultimatum for the rest of the workforce to sign up for “long hours at high intensity” or leave. It is estimated that hundreds of the remaining staff chose to leave. The departures include many engineers responsible for fixing bugs and preventing service outages, raising questions about the stability of the platform amid the loss of workers and prompting hurried discussions among managers about who should be asked to return, they said now and former employees. In an early sign that the number of those refusing to sign on was higher than expected, Musk eased the back-to-the-office order he issued a week ago, telling employees on Thursday that they would be allowed to work remotely if their managers claimed they do. they had “an outstanding contribution”. Twitter later announced via email that it would close “our office buildings” and disable employee badge access until Monday, the New York Times reported. NEW: Twitter just notified employees that effective immediately, all office buildings are temporarily closed and signal access is suspended. No details are given as to why. — Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 17, 2022 Online, users are speculating that the site could be down within hours or days. On Thursday afternoon, the version of the Twitter app used by employees began to slow down, according to a source familiar with the matter, who estimated that the public version of Twitter was at risk of breaking overnight. The website DownDetector reported a significant increase in user reports of problems with the site. “If it’s broken, there’s no one left to fix things in many areas,” said the person, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation. The news caused an outpouring of grief on the platform and prompted many users to log into their Instagram or Mastodon accounts as an alternative. US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she can be found on Instagram or email. We hope that doesn’t happen ⬇️ but just in case: it was great tweeting with you! 🐣 As a backup, follow me on Instagram, same handle: @AOC – I’m really there, as it is here. Or sign up for emails where I’ll share whatever other platforms I’m involved with: https://t.co/xfe7HNvEW1 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 18, 2022 He followed it up with a tweet saying that the employees who built the company deserved better. “Shout out to all the workers on Twitter. You all created a vital place to connect and you deserved so much better,” he said. Official government accounts also began to provide means to be found elsewhere. Musk has been meeting with some top employees to try to convince them to stay on, said a current employee and a recently departed employee who were in touch with colleagues on Twitter. In a private conversation at Signal with about 50 Twitter employees, nearly 40 said they had decided to leave, according to the former employee. And in a private Slack group for current and former Twitter employees, about 360 people joined a new channel titled “voluntary layoff,” said a person with knowledge of the Slack group. A separate poll for Blind asked staff to estimate the percentage of people who would leave Twitter based on their perception. More than half of respondents estimated that at least 50% of workers would leave. While it’s unclear how many employees have chosen to stay, the numbers underscore the reluctance of some executives to remain at a company where Musk has rushed to lay off half its employees, including top management, and is relentlessly changing the culture to emphasize long hours and intense pace. Twitter, which has lost several members of its communications team, did not respond to a request for comment. Let’s put this in perspective – at the beginning of this month, Twitter had 7,400 employees. Just halfway through the month, if 75% stick to their decision today, the company will have shrunk by ~88%. — Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes) November 18, 2022 Blue hearts and greeting emojis flooded the site and its internal chatrooms Thursday, for the second time in two weeks as Twitter employees said goodbye. Until 6 p.m. EST, more than two dozen Twitter employees across the United States and Europe had announced their departures in public Twitter posts reviewed by Reuters, although each resignation could not be independently verified. Early Wednesday, Musk emailed Twitter employees, saying, “Going forward, to create a groundbreaking Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we’re going to have to be extremely tough.” The email asked staff to click “yes” if they wanted to stay. Those who did not respond by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday would be considered resigned and given a severance package, the email said. As the deadline loomed, workers scrambled to figure out what to do. A team at Twitter has decided to take the leap together and leave the company, a departing employee told Reuters. In an apparent call by Musk for employees to be “hardcore,” the Twitter profile bios of several departing engineers on Thursday described themselves as “soft core engineers” or “former hard core engineers.” Reuters contributed to this report.
