Elon Musk has told Twitter staff to commit to an ‘extremely hardcore’ working culture or leave.
In an email to all staff yesterday, the social media firm’s new owner said workers should agree to the pledge if they wanted to stay.
Those who do not sign up by 10pm tonight will leave with three months’ severance pay.
Elon Musk said Twitter ‘will need to be extremely hardcore’ to succeed
Musk said Twitter ‘will need to be extremely hardcore’ to succeed. ‘This will mean working long hours at high intensity,’ he wrote. ‘Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.’
Workers were told that they needed to click on a link by today if they want to be ‘part of the new Twitter’. He added: ‘Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.’
Musk also gave the strongest hint yet that he is looking for someone to run the business in the long term.
At a court in Delaware where he is defending his £47billion Tesla pay package, he said: ‘There’s an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition to reorganise the company.
‘But then I expect to reduce my time at Twitter.’
Musk is known for his relentless work ethic. Staff at car maker Tesla say it can be inspiring but burns out for those who cannot keep up.
He is determined to turn Twitter around and has sacked half the 7,500 staff and ended working from home after his £38billion deal two weeks ago.
Musk said he had to cut as it was losing £3.5million a day, blaming ‘activist groups pressuring advertisers’ for a ‘massive drop in revenue’. A host of top executives have stepped down following his purchase.
Musk leads Twitter, Tesla and rocket company Space X.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said it was clear Twitter’s culture had ‘dramatically changed.
‘Elon Musk is going to operate Twitter like he has with Tesla and Space X,’ he said.
‘He is not going to be doing candlelight dinners and playing ping-pong in Twitter’s cafeteria and this is a shock to the system. But he needs to play nice because if key engineers and developers leave, this will be a major void in the Twitter ecosystem. There’s a careful balance ahead for him in this tightrope act.’
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