🎧 Listen: In today's episode of The Journal podcast, AlexaCorse details the layoffs at Elon Musk's Twitter and what the company's leaner staff could mean for the platform
This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.Kate Linebaugh: Last week, a group of Twitter employees gathered at their office.Speaker 3: Four years.Kate Linebaugh: At 5:00 PM they were supposedly going to be out of a job.Kate Linebaugh: About a day earlier, these employees had gotten an email from their new boss, Elon Musk.
Melissa Engel: I've always been a big fan of Twitter, of the platform. I think it's this absolutely unique experience and I've been using it since 2009 and I've seen it evolve over the years from being like the TikTok of its day. It was this cool space and you could talk to celebrities and journalists and politicians for the first time. And so when I saw the position come up, I jumped at the chance to get an opportunity to work there.
Alexa Corse: Employees started getting locked out of their work accounts, their email and their Slack, and obviously they figured that this was the sign they'd been laid off. So many started tweeting out goodbyes or farewells. A lot of people tweeting out the salute emoji, which has kind of become like a symbol of the original Twitter and saying goodbye.Alexa Corse: Thousands. So we know it was about half the workforce.
Kate Linebaugh: Melissa Engel from her desk at Twitter and content moderation had watched those layoffs roll out with trepidation, especially because she was a contractor. She wouldn't get severance if her job ended. Kate Linebaugh: Melissa says she's moving forward and looking for another job. But back at Twitter, Musk wasn't done. The following week, he sent out his ultimatum. That's after the break. Days after Melissa was let go, the hardcore email from Musk went out. Twitter employees had to make their decision if they were going to click the link and stay or if they were going to leave. And many chose the latter.
Kate Linebaugh: Twitter did not respond to our request for comment. The night of the 5:00 PM deadline, Musk tweeted out that, "The best people are staying, so I'm not super worried." And the next day he kept pushing forward with his vision for Twitter 2.0. He started with yet another email.
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