Twitter, which shed two-thirds of its workforce into just three weeks in the Elon Musk era, could see some re-hiring now. With Musk witnessing mass resignations and employee dissents, amid his own struggles to stop driving Twitter to the ground, the billionaire informed that Twitter was done with layoffs.
In an all-hands meeting with Twitter employees, Musk informed that the company would resume active recruitment to bring in new blood in its engineering and sales departments. It has asked for recommendations for potential candidates from employees who have not got the boot yet.
Musk is especially looking for individuals who are “great at writing software” in “terms of critical hire,” Musk added. No mention of new hires in Twitter’s content moderation team was made, and given that looser content moderation is slated to be a thing under Musk’s regime, it opens a can of worms on its own. It also comes as Musk restored several accounts that were banned from the platform for harassing transgender people.
Does this decision come too little, too late? And is it driven solely off the billionaire’s altruism? Despite Musk’s earlier assurances that he was not looking to acquire Twitter to “make more money,” several of his decisions have been to the contrary. This includes a revamped, costlier, and expanded Twitter Blue – the company’s subscription service that gives subscribers access to exclusive perks and features. Musk is also betting on Blue to provide at least half of the platform’s total revenue, which is something that the platform will need to survive given that its greatest source of income – ads – is in jeopardy as advertisers are bailing out on Musk with his policies and decisions as Twitter’s new owner.
This decision comes not only after Musk fired almost half of the workforce and started a purge in its top management, but last week saw a mass exodus of employees – nearly 1000 – who tendered their resignations and left the company, rather than continue to deal with Musk and his ‘hardcore’ Twitter 2.0. Musk and Twitter responded by closing down their offices and disabling badge access till Monday, November 21. Other layoffs include employees and engineers who were fired for criticising Musk, and firing an unspecified number of employees in Twitter’s sales teams.
Answering other questions put forward by employees, Musk informed that there were no plans for Twitter to move its headquarters to Texas, saying that such an instance would “play into the idea that Twitter has gone from being left-wing to right-wing.” Dual headquarters, though, may be on the cards, even as Musk announced his intentions to decentralize the social media company by setting up engineering teams in Japan, India, Indonesia, and Brazil.
