The situation at Twitter grew even more chaotic over the past day as all remaining employees were forced to choose whether to stay and meet owner Elon Musk's demands or leave now and take three months' severance. Musk had sent an ultimatum to staff earlier this week, saying they must commit to "working long hours at high intensity" in order to keep their jobs.
"lf you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below," Musk wrote. "Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance."
As the deadline passed yesterday, at least hundreds of employees reportedly didn't fill out the form and thus chose to leave. Twitter reportedly informed staff that it was closing all office buildings and disabling employee badge access until Monday.
"In Twitter's internal chat tool, over 500 employees wrote farewell messages on Thursday, a source familiar with the notes said," according to Reuters.
"The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried," Musk wrote.
Half may have left, but reports vary
Exactly how many people opted into staying at Twitter isn't clear yet. Twitter reportedly no longer has a communications department to relay information to the media, but it's possible the company will be left with a skeleton staff compared to what it had just a few weeks ago.
"Less than half of the company's remaining roughly 4,000 employees chose on Thursday to stay at the company and sign up for Musk's 'Twitter 2.0,'" Business Insider reported last night, citing "a person familiar with the company's processes."
When Musk took over Twitter on October 27, the company had around 7,500 employees. Musk laid off about half of them barely a week later, but the company asked back dozens who apparently were laid off by mistake. Musk also laid off thousands of contractors and banned remote work, likely guaranteeing more employee departures.
With "#RIPTwitter" and "#TwitterDown" trending, there were rumors suggesting without concrete evidence that 75 percent of remaining employees left. That percentage may be true at least in specific parts of the company. "Out of one group of about 60 employees, roughly 50 percent to 75 percent told colleagues they planned to depart, one person said Thursday morning," The Wall Street Journal wrote.
The New York Times described a poll of almost 250 people that came up with a departure percentage of nearly 75 percent:
On Blind, a social platform where anonymous users talk about their workplaces, a poll of nearly 250 people associated with Twitter showed that about 73 percent favored taking the severance package over staying. People who decided to stay still believed in Twitter's mission of giving people a voice or had visas tied to their jobs or other personal reasons, two people said.
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