Following a week of uncertainty over the company’s future under new owner Elon Musk, Twitter will notify employees through email on Friday whether they have been laid off, temporarily locking its headquarters and restricting staff access.
In an email to employees, the social media business stated that it will notify them by 9 a.m. Staff layoffs will be announced at 12 p.m. EDT/1600 GMT on Friday, Pacific time.
“To put Twitter on a healthy path, we will begin the arduous process of decreasing our global workforce on Friday,” according to an email seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Twitter announced that its offices will be temporarily shuttered and that all credential access will be suspended “to help guarantee the safety of each employee as well as Twitter infrastructure and user data.”
According to the social media network, Twitter employees who are unaffected by the layoffs will be contacted via their work email accounts. Employees who have been laid off will be advised of the next steps by email, according to the message.
Some employees stated that their access to the company’s IT system had already been restricted, and they were concerned that this meant they would be laid off.
“Looks like I’m unemployed you all. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and deleted from Slack,” tweeted a person with the handle @SBkcrn, who describes himself as a former senior community manager at Twitter.
Twitter did not reply immediately to a request for comment.
Musk’s layoff letter wraps after a week of purges in which he demanded major cost cuts and imposed a demanding new work ethic across the social media giant.
According to two persons familiar with the situation and an internal Slack message reviewed by Reuters, he has asked Twitter’s teams to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings.
He had already fired the company’s chief executive officer, as well as top financial and legal officers. Others have left, including those in charge of the company’s advertising, marketing, and human resources units.
Musk’s first week as Twitter’s CEO has been chaotic and unclear. Two company-wide meetings were planned, but were canceled just hours later. Employees told Reuters that they were left to piece facts together from media sources, private message groups, and anonymous forums.
The anticipated layoffs have chilled Twitter’s notoriously open company culture, which is admired by its staff.
“Please return home if you are in an office or on your way to an office,” Twitter urged in an email on Thursday.
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According to two colleagues, hundreds of people swarmed the company’s Slack channels shortly after the email arrived in their inboxes. According to the sources, Musk was requested to join the channel.
