Twitter mass resignations begins, Elon Musk 'shuts down' offices

Hundreds of Twitter workers have left before the deadline Elon Musk gave them to accept his "extremely hardcore" manner of work or leave the firm, causing further more chaos at the social media platform. Employees were given until Thursday at 5 p.m. (US time) to comply with Musk's new work conditions, but several of them turned to Twitter to announce their resignations.

Only 7% of those who took the survey indicated they "clicked yes to stay, I'm hardcore," while 25% said they had remained "reluctantly."

According to one current worker and a recently terminated worker in contact with Twitter coworkers, Musk was meeting with several top staff in an effort to urge them to remain.

Although it is unclear how many employees have stayed, these figures highlight the reluctance of some employees to remain at a company where Musk has hastily fired half of its employees, including top management, and is ruthlessly changing the culture to emphasise long hours and an intense pace of work.

Two sources claim that the Twitter has informed its staff that it would be closing its doors and removing badge access till Monday. On Thursday night, security guards reportedly started escorting workers out of the building.  Twitter, which has recently lost numerous members of its communication staff, declined to comment.

The former employee claims that out of a group of 50 Twitter employees, approximately 40 announced their resignation in a secret Signal session.

A individual familiar with the Slack group said that about 360 current and former Twitter workers had joined a new channel titled "voluntary-layoff."

A second Blind survey inquired of employees as to their best guess as to the proportion of Twitter users who would quit due to negative impressions. Half or more of those polled predicted that at least half of their staff will quit.

For the second time in as many weeks, Twitter's internal chatrooms and public feeds were swamped with blue hearts and salute emojis on Thursday as staff bid their goodbyes.

By 6 PM Eastern, Reuters had examined public tweets from more than two dozen Twitter workers in the US and Europe announcing their resignations. However, Reuters was unable to independently verify any of the resignations.

Musk contacted Twitter staff early on Wednesday, stating,  "Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore".

The email requested a "yes" response from employees who want to remain on staff. Employees who do not answer by Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time will be assumed to have resigned and will receive a severance payment, according to the email.

Staff members frantically brainstormed solutions as the deadline loomed. According to Reuters, one departing employee from Twitter said that a team inside the firm had collectively agreed to quit the company.

On Thursday, some workers who were leaving the company wrote in their Twitter biographies that they were "softcore engineers" or "ex-hardcore engineers" in an apparent swipe at Musk's appeal for staff to be "hardcore."

A separate poll on Blind asked staffers to estimate what percentage of people would leave Twitter based on their perception. More than half of respondents estimated at least 50% of employees would leave.

Blue hearts and salute emojis flooded Twitter and its internal chatrooms on Thursday, the second time in two weeks as Twitter employees said their goodbyes.
By 6 pm Eastern, over two dozen Twitter employees across the United States and Europe had announced their departures in public Twitter posts reviewed by Reuters, though each resignation could not be independently verified.

Early on Wednesday, Musk had emailed Twitter employees, saying: "Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore".

The email asked staff to click "yes" if they wanted to stick around. Those who did not respond by 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday would be considered to have quit and given a severance package, the email said.

As the deadline approached, employees scrambled to figure out what to do.

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One team within Twitter decided to take the leap together and leave the company, one employee who is leaving told Reuters.

In an apparent jab at Musk's call for employees to be "hardcore," the Twitter profile bios of several departing engineers on Thursday described themselves as "softcore engineers" or "ex-hardcore engineers."

(With inputs from Reuters)