Elon Musk Reportedly Plans to Cut Twitter’s Workforce in Half
Elon Musk is reportedly planning to cut 3,700 jobs at Twitter, which represents approximately 50% of the company’s workforce. According to Bloomberg, Musk should inform employees affected by the job cuts tomorrow, and all of them should receive 60 days of severance pay.
In addition to reducing the company’s workforce drastically, Musk is also planning to make Twitter’s remaining employees come back to the company’s offices. Staffers who were hired remotely when the COVID-19 pandemic began will reportedly have limited time to decide if they want to move closer to one of the company’s offices.
Twitter previously allowed its employees to work from home permanently, and this reversal could push more employees to leave the company. One Twitter employee speaking anonymously to The Washington Post expressed his concerns over the company’s work environment following Elon Musk’s takeover.
“It’s like Twitter’s culture has been completely turned inside out overnight,” the employee said. “Mass trauma event over here.”
Elon Musk is reportedly planning other short-term changes for Twitter, including a revamp of the Twitter Blue subscription. The current plan is to raise the price of Twitter Blue from $4.99/month to $8 and make Twitter’s verification badge a Twitter Blue perk. The new subscription should also offer other advantages including priority in replies, mentions, and search, the ability to post longer video and audio clips, and a number of ads reduced by half.
In just a couple of days since he became the CEO of Twitter, Musk seems to have given Facebook’s old “Move fast and break things” motto a whole new meaning. Musk is wasting no time cutting costs and finding new ways to increase the company’s revenue, but things could get worse before they get any better.