On Friday, Twitter employees were hit by widespread layoffs at the social media company as new owner Elon Musk tackled the threat of reining in costs.
In a letter to employees obtained by multiple media outlets, the company said employees would know by noon ET if they had been laid off. The email to staff said the job cuts were “necessary to ensure the company’s success going forward.”
The email did not say how many people would lose their jobs, but previous reports from the company suggested Musk was looking to cut staff by 50 to 75 percent.
Globally, Twitter has around 7,500 employees. About 250 are in Canada, mostly in Toronto and Vancouver, but the company allows remote work.
At least two of the company’s top leaders in Canada are gone. Paul Burns, managing director of the company’s Canadian operations, and Michele Austin, Twitter’s director of public policy for the US and Canada, announced their departures from the San Francisco-based tech giant on Friday.
Yesterday’s cutback affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Security organization (as opposed to approximately 50% company-wide cuts), with our frontline moderation staff experiencing the least impact.
—@yoyoel
The email to staff asked office staff to go home and check their work and personal emails for their employment status. If they lost their job, the news would reach their personal email. If they stayed, it would be through their Twitter email.
“At 9:00 a.m. PST on Friday, November 4, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your role on Twitter,” the email read. “Please check your email, including your spam folder. If your work is not affected, you will be notified via your Twitter email.”
On Friday evening, Musk tweeted that there was “no choice” but to make layoffs, claiming the company was losing $4 million a day.
Under US law, employers with at least 100 employees are required to disclose layoffs involving 500 or more employees, regardless of whether a company is publicly or privately traded.
Musk, in his tweet on Friday evening, said that the affected workers were offered three months of severance pay.
In an earlier tweet, as employees were learning whether they had lost their jobs, Musk blamed activists for what he described as a “massive drop in revenue” since he took over Twitter late last week. He did not say how much revenue had fallen.
Big companies like General Motors, General Mills and Audi have paused Twitter ads amid questions about how it will fare under Musk.