Twitter’s new president, Elon Musk, has given his employees an ultimatum – to either formally commit to doing “extremely hardcore” work by Thursday evening, or leave the company.
The Washington Post obtained an internal email from Musk to the employees. The email, sent at midnight, was titled “A Fork in the Road.”
“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” Musk expressed in the internal email, which according to the Post’s reporting, was sent to all Twitter employees.
“Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” he wrote.
In the email, Musk initially explained how Twitter, as a platform will be “much more engineering-driven,” before giving the ultimatum.
“Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway. At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so I think this makes sense,” the email continued.
“If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” he wrote and linked to an online survey form.
Here’s the text of the email Musk sent to Twitter staff overnight.
Those who don’t commit to being “extremely hardcore” by 5pm ET today must leave the company. ‼️
Story: https://t.co/expt0d63dH pic.twitter.com/C8VDjRBvk1
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) November 16, 2022
Any employee who disagrees with Musk, or refuses to sign the pledge by five pm on Thursday would receive a three-month severance package and an exit from the company.
This email comes as Musk is planning on major layoffs, and firing around 75% of Twitter’s current staff. Elon also appears to be targeting employees who have expressed disapproval of his free speech policies on the company’s internal messaging channels.
Musk has also recently fired a Twitter Android employee who attempted to outsmart him publicly on Twitter. Musk apparently made his firing decision and announced it on Twitter.
Elon Musk just fired a Twitter employee. On Twitter. pic.twitter.com/3rrK052llf
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) November 14, 2022
“Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful,” Musk concluded the email.
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