A week after Elon Musk successfully took over Twitter, he made a grand move cannonade as he fired away almost 4,000 of the company’s workforce within the following week, roughly half of which pertains to its 7,800 employees.
The rigorous layoff is part of Tesla chief’s plan to cut costs. However, the decision attracted uproar and harsh criticism over what many perceived as going too far.
Many registered concern over the effect it would have on the affected staff who are now rendered jobless and whether such drastic measures were necessary.
The move opened discussions of corporate responsibility and what might result from the aggressive cost-cutting strategies that have been rampant in the tech industry.
Why Did Elon Musk Fire Twitter Staff?
Elon Musk said he had fired more than 6,000 people at Twitter since taking over the company in a rare interview with BBC yesterday.
Musk was quoted in the interview saying that at present on the social media platform, only 1,500 employees are left, which is a far cry from under 8,000 who were working at the time of his acquisition. It translates to approximately 80% of the company’s staff reduction.
“It’s not fun at all” and can sometimes be “painful,” the billionaire CEO added in an interview with the British broadcaster last Friday from his San Francisco head office.
When the world’s second richest man came on board, he said the company was facing “a $3 billion negative cash flow situation” and therefore required “pretty drastic action.” That left Twitter (TWTR) with only “four months to live,” he guessed.
Twitter Threatens to Sue Thread
Twitter has sent out a cease-and-desist message to the creators of Threads, a new rival app from Meta that’s already drawn tens of millions of users just days after its Wednesday debut.
On the same day, legal counsel for Twitter, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that “Threads had been involved in ‘systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
The letter, first reported by Semafor said Meta had hired scores of former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” platform.
Final Thoughts
Elon Musk’s decision to part with some of these Twitter employees thus highlights one thing everyone knows – that the social media landscape is one dynamic and high-stakes job.
Musk’s dedication shows itself, not just in the proactive changes to personnel, but by the environment that he wants to cultivate and the values that are near and dear to his own heart.
While the breakdown does not detail any sackings, the removals echo Musk’s insistence that his workforce should personify what sort of platform is envisaged. In this ever-changing world of social media, wherein no small part of the dense influence of big shots is perceived acutely, Musk is a case in point miles ahead with his conduct.
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