Twitter Worker Sacked Day After Baby Born, Another After Working Weekend

The whirlwind week that Elon Musk took over Twitter began with sleepless nights for company engineers -- and ended with half the staff getting the axe.

The whirlwind week in which Elon Musk took over Twitter began with sleepless nights for the company's engineers — and ended with half of the employees taking the ax.

"It's been a strange week," said a former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Executives were fired or were resigning,

But there was no official communication until 5 p.m. Thursday,” seven days after the deal was struck.

The employees received the first email on Thursday informing them that they would know their fate the next day. On Friday, a second email confirmed the rumors: 50 percent of employees lost their jobs.

The execution affected the marketing department severely, taking over two-thirds of the design department, and possibly 75 percent of managers.

Content moderation has been avoided to some extent, with a layoff rate of just 15 percent, according to Yoel Roth, the platform's head of safety.

After 24 hours without processing the layoffs,

Musk finally tweeted that "unfortunately there is no choice when the company loses more than $4 million a day" and that all those who lost their jobs were "offered to terminate their employment for three months."

The decision to lay off was not surprising to the employees - rumors were growing - but they were shocked by how brutal it was implemented.

“People won't find out by any phone call or any email...

But just by seeing my work laptop restart automatically and just blank," Emmanuel Cornet, a French engineer who's been at Twitter for a year and a half, told AFP Friday.

- Lawsuit -

Cornet was fired on Tuesday after being told in an email that he had "violated" several company policies, without further explanation, after spending an entire weekend in the office on projects launched by the new owner by decree.

"I'm still trying to figure out the real reason," he said.

Cornet said that Tesla's CEO had engineers from his main company with the umbrella to evaluate the work of Twitter developers, and they specifically examined the amount of code each of them produces.

He is one of five former Twitter employees who have filed a class action lawsuit against the company on the grounds that they did not receive a 60-

A day's notice is required under the Federal Warning Act of 1988 in the event of a plant closure or mass layoff.

The French expat said many of his laid-off colleagues were in an "unenviable position in terms of health insurance or visas".

"Some were on parental leave. A colleague gave birth yesterday, only to be laid off today."

Those who have been laid off must continue to abide by the company's rules during the notice period. Many fear that the new administration will look for excuses to accuse them of misconduct and not pay them compensation.

"If anyone says something offensive, or does anything they can use to fire him because he's going to do it instead of severing,

said the former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

- summer exodus

-

For six months, platform employees have been preparing for the possibility that the world's richest man will take over.

His reputation precedes him, from the harsh work rates in his factories to his refusal to work remotely,

hugely popular in the tech sector, and his absolute vision of free speech, which his critics claim can only lead to harassment, misinformation and tolerance of hate speech.

This summer, more than 700 people left on their own, before they even knew if the $44 billion acquisition would take place.

The radical change in the company's culture was confirmed early last Friday, when teams of engineers were mobilized to redesign certain features in no time, with their jobs on the line.

“Maybe there were too many layers of management… Twitter was not a well-equipped and efficient machine,” said the anonymous ex-employee.

"But I don't know if (mass layoffs) will fix it."

"I think a lot of the people who are left now are going to leave, and maybe that's what Elon wants," he added.

James Glenn, from London, replied: "I feel sorry for anyone who wasn't fired (to be honest).

Elon will strike those left on earth with his thorny thoughts."

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