hundreds of employees slam the door after the ultimatum of Elon Musk – Release

Between “to give everything” and depart, they chose to leave the ship. In the aftermath of the ultimatum launched by Elon Musk, and two weeks after a first wave of massive layoffs, the departures of Twitter employees are increasing. The new platform boss, who bought the company for $44 billion on Oct. 27, appears to have clipped his wings.

In an internal letter sent Wednesday, Elon Musk asked his employees to get involved “working long hours at high intensity” in order to “Building a revolutionary Twitter 2.0 and succeeding in an increasingly competitive world.” But that goal came with a thinly veiled threat: “Only an outstanding performance will be worth a passing grade.”

According to US media reports, hundreds of employees slammed the door. They join half of the 7,500 employees laid off two weeks ago and another 700 or so who had already resigned over the summer – even before the billionaire’s takeover of the Californian company was registered.

Tweets from the former “Tweep” – a nickname for Twitter employees – have flooded onto the platform. “I’m speechless, I’m just grateful to say that I was able to land my dream job and accomplish more than I ever thought possible. It’s been a great adventure”, tweeted Deanna Hines-Glasgow, one of them. Like her former colleagues, she had until Thursday afternoon to decide, on pain of leaving the company with a compensation equal to three months’ salary. The method is surprising, even for a country like the United States where labor law does little to protect employees.

Attached to posts by now former employees announcing their departure, the hashtag #lovewhereyouworked ( “Love where you worked”) seems to mark the end of an era. And maybe even the death knell of the social network? Many users – former collaborators, journalists and analysts in particular – are wondering about this point. The hashtag #RIPTwitter was collected more than 700,000 times this Friday morning.

The question arises all the more as these departures could alter the stability of the platform. Reuters points out that, according to a source familiar with the matter, the employee version of Twitter was slowed down Thursday evening: it estimated that the public version of the platform would probably stop overnight.

Rather than show his concern, Elon Musk has chosen irony. “And…we just hit a new peak in Twitter usage, lol,” he split in a tweet. Reflection accompanied by a meme – parody image – which represents a man with his face replaced by a bluebird, who poses in front of a crowded tomb with the same logo, as if Twitter were attending his own funeral. One way to illustrate the expression “better to laugh than cry” ?

Another evocative element of the fall of the blue bird: the doors of the San Francisco company buildings have been closed since Thursday afternoon, even for employees with badges. “The offices will reopen on Monday 21 November, indicates an internal email published by various American media. Thanks for your flexibility. Please continue to comply with internal regulations by refraining from discussing confidential information on social networks, with the press or elsewhere.

“Forward to Failure”

This new blow of pressure does not help the already established popularity of the billionaire. The same evening anti-Elon Musk messages were projected on the facade of the headquarters. “Elon Musk, shut up”, “Stop toxic Twitter”, “Towards Failure”… report the photos of Gia Vang, journalist of the local branch of the American channel NBC.

At the same time, dozens of employees – current and former – gathered in a “space” (platform audio lounge) to support each other. Employees who have chosen to stay have spoken of their unshakable attachment to the social network and their desire to see it survive, even rise from its ashes.

“To all the Tweeps who decided today would be their last day: thank you for being amazing colleagues through the thick and thin. I can’t wait to see what you do next.”said Esther Crawford, director of product development at Twitter. You are one of the few officials who have neither resigned nor fired and still publicly support their leader.