Elon Gives Twitter Employees 'Extremely Hardcore' Ultimatum, Their Response Epically Backfires

By Abby Liebing November 18, 2022 at 12:21pm

As Elon Musk continues to navigate Twitter through a transition kicked off by his new ownership of the platform, he issued an ultimatum to employees: Work long and hard or leave. Many employees have reportedly decided to leave. But despite the internal turmoil, Twitter usage is still skyrocketing.

On Wednesday, Musk emailed employees what was essentially an ultimatum, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” the email read, according to the Journal.

Employees were then given a deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday to fill out a Google form indicating whether they were going to accept the new “hardcore” workplace or leave with three months’ severance.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that hundreds of employees opted to leave.

It’s been a ride pic.twitter.com/0VDf5hn2UA

— Matt Miller (@brainiaq2000) November 17, 2022

On Friday morning, it was then discovered that Twitter actually temporarily closed its offices and employees did not have access, the Post Millenial reported.

“The offices are expected to reopen on Monday, November 21, giving Elon Musk and his team a chance to sort things out,” the Post Millenial added.

Do you agree with Elon Musk's move?

This internal shuffling at Twitter adds to the thousands of employees that Musk already fired as he takes a new approach to running Twitter.

Earlier in November, just after his official acquisition of the social media giant on Oct. 27, Musk fired 3,700 employees, the Guardian reported.

He also told staff that most of them would have to return to the office for work instead of working from home.

“Remote work is no longer allowed, unless you have a specific exception. Managers will send the exception lists to me for review and approval,” Musk wrote in an email, according to the Guardian.

Musk, however, has shown that, though he is instituting a new kind of workplace at Twitter, he is also ready to evaluate and work with those whom he needs to keep for the well-being of the company, according to the Times.

The Times reported that even though he told employees to either commit to working hard or leave, Musk also met with those who were considered “critical.”

The Times also reported that sources said Musk seemed willing to negotiate on his terms about remote work.

Though there have been numerous changes and what seems to be some serious internal overhaul, and now hundreds more employees leaving, nonetheless, Twitter usage is still improving, Musk tweeted.

“And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol,” Musk tweeted on Thursday evening, after hundreds of employees left earlier at the 5 p.m. deadline.

And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

Musk tweeted this as “#RIPTwitter” was trending on the platform, Variety reported.

“Let that sink in,” Musk added in the thread.

Let that sink in …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

This increase in usage comes not just after hundreds more employees left the company, but also after Twitter already hit an all-time high usage rate earlier in the month.

“Twitter usage is at an all-time high lol,” Musk tweeted on Nov. 7.