Accept 'hardcore' culture or leave: Musk tells Twitter staff
The ultimatum follows Musk's firing of half of Twitter's employees
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has given an ultimatum to the company's staff: either put in lengthy hours of "high intensity" work during Twitter transformation, or quit with severance pay.
Employees must submit the online form by 5 pm Eastern Time on Thursday or accept three months of severance pay.
"Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore," Musk said in his email to employees.
"This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade."
Musk told employees that going forward, Twitter will put a greater emphasis on engineering than other operations.
While the design and product management would still be important areas and report to him, he said "those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway."
Musk's email also provided employees instructions on how to stay on with the firm.
"If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below," read the email, which linked to an online form.
Musk's company-wide ultimatum comes after he sacked top Twitter executives and laid off half of Twitter's full-time employees.
This week, he also terminated some veteran engineers after they attacked him in public or on the internal Slack forums.
Last week, Muck reportedly told Twitter employees that the company would put an end to remote working and that "difficult times" lay ahead.
Commenting on Musk's ultimatum to Twitter employees, Jessica Brannigan, lead people scientist, Culture Amp, said: "Twitter under Musk seems to be promising very long hours, which must be worked in the office (and not remotely), with half of the number of colleagues they used to have.
"What is being offered to Twitter employees to stay? And why isn't this a question that Twitter is asking itself?
"There seems to be so much emphasis on what there will not be - time, autonomy, lunch - but very little about what they will get from staying there. Having employees commit to their company is important, especially during tough times. But asking current employees to sign away their lives to 'extremely hardcore' work for the foreseeable certainly seems like an Employee Value Proposition in reverse.
"Most companies in the uber-talent-hungry tech sector look to bolster the offerings for their employees, making them increasingly attractive places to work. The latest missive states that 'Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade' which at first glance can sound aspirational, but there are two concerning things with this.
"First - we know from our latest research that the majority of those in highest performance brackets don't retain that status when performance reviews next take place; that's because working at peak performance is hard; it's not realistic over time for most.
"Second; most businesses realistically need a robust grounding of good performers who will stay with the business and deliver good work, not geniuses who come in and out in the blink of an eye."
Last week, in the light of warnings from regulators, US Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts warned Musk that he should "fix" his companies, otherwise "Congress will".
New CEO for Twitter
Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he anticipated spending less time on Twitter and ultimately finding a replacement to manage the social media business, stating that he planned to finish reorganising the company's structure this week.
Musk made the comments while defending himself in a Delaware court against accusations that the $56 billion compensation package he received from Tesla was based on easy-to-achieve performance goals and had the support of a compliant board of directors.
However, Musk subsequently said in a tweet that he plans to continue running Twitter until it is in a strong position, although it would "take some time."