Elon Musk plans to slash half of Twitter’s workforce: Report

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is reportedly planning to cut about 3,700 jobs at the microblogging site — that is about half of the company’s workforce in a bid to cut costs.  

Musk said that he will also look at reversing the company’s existing work-from-anywhere policy, asking remaining employees to report to offices, though some exceptions could be made, Bloomberg News reported citing people familiar with the development.  

The San Francisco-based company’s employees have been bracing for layoffs ever since Musk took over, and immediately fired top executives of the company, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief, Vijaya Gadde. In the next few days, chief marketing officer Leslie Berland, chief customer officer Sarah Personette, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, who was vice president of global client solutions, also announced their exits. 

Also read: Six changes Elon Musk has made since taking over Twitter

Musk anointed himself “Chief Twit” in his bio on the social network. Bloomberg reported earlier that he would take on the role of interim CEO himself. The New York Times reported that managers have already been asked to come up with a list of employees who will ‘let go’.  Further, a document filed with financial regulators Monday showed Twitter’s board had been dismissed, leaving the company in Musk’s sole control. 

Musk and a team of advisers have been reportedly discussing various scenarios for job cuts and other policy changes at Twitter, with reports floating that laid off workers will be offered 60 days’ worth of severance pay.  

Reuters had reported earlier this week, citing people familiar with the development that Musk plans to cut a quarter of Twitter’s workforce as part of a first round of layoffs at his recently acquired company. As per the report, Musk told investors that he ‘would take Twitter private, reduce its work force, roll back its content moderation rules and find new revenue streams’.  

In early October, Musk started hinting at his staffing priorities, saying he wants to focus on the core product. “Software engineering, server operations and design will rule the roost,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, many employees are volunteering internally to revive the Vine project, Twitter’s short-form video app which shut down in 2017, with the hope that they can keep their jobs.