After taking over Twitter on October 27th, Elon Musk moved quickly and completed mass layoffs this week.
The company has not released an official statement, but it is estimated that almost 50% of Twitter’s workforce was let go (lost their jobs) within the last 3 days.
The India office had 230 employees, of which 180 have reportedly been let go.
How it was done
How these layoffs were done is being discussed a lot.
On November 3rd, all Twitter employees received an email that informed them that:
A. If they were on their way to work, they should go back. Everyone’s access card was disabled and no one could enter the Twitter offices.
B. They were to expect an email on November 4th morning. If they had their job, they would get it on their official Twitter id. Else, they would get it on their personal id.
C. If they had not received it by 1600 hours local time on November 4th, they were to get in touch with Human Resources Department.
From November 4th onwards, employees started losing access to their laptop, Slack (Slack is a tool that is used by employees of a company to exchange informal chats with each other), and official Twitter id.
Many employees used their Twitter accounts to share that they had been laid off.
At least one person was logged off while they were in the middle of the meeting.
Why is the method being criticised?
This method is being criticised because:
A. Loss of job is a major event for any human being. Many of them are likely to have loans to pay and families to take care of.
B. Usually, at such times, the manager and HR sit with the employee and explain to them that they have been let go. While the conversation is difficult, this step allows the person to at least share some of their grief with their manager and HR and communicate their sense of loss.
C. Some people are also wondering about the basis of these layoffs. Slashing 50% of the workforce within a week is likely to lead to at least some great employees being let go without deserving it.
Explanation and Lawsuit
Elon Musk, in a tweet, explained that the layoffs are necessary because Twitter suffers a loss of 4 million dollars every day.
He also mentioned that everyone who has been impacted has got 3 months of pay, which is 50% more than what is legally required. Obviously, only the US legal requirement is being addressed here.
In the meantime, a lawsuit (case) has been filed in the California courts, saying that Twitter had to give a 60-day notice to employees before a mass layoff, which it did not do. This is required under a law called WARN.
This is a developing story.