Elon Musk Sends First Email to Twitter Staff, Ends Remote Work

Elon Musk has axed Twitter’s remote work policy after cleaving half of the company’s workforce last week — reports Business Insider.

In his first company-wide email to Twitter staff on Wednesday at 2:39 a.m. ET, freshly-minted CEO Elon Musk announced the end of remote working at Twitter. “Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,” Musk wrote.

The eccentric entrepreneur said that he is “changing Twitter policy such that remote work is no longer allowed, unless you have a specific exception.” Starting Thursday, all Twitter employees (or at least however many survived the recent layoffs) are required to be in the office “for a minimum of 40 hours per week” unless expressly permitted by Musk to work elsewhere.

“Obviously, if you are physically unable to travel to an office or have a critical personal obligation, then your absence is understandable,” Musk added. Employees can make special requests for remote work privileges, with all of them going through Musk for review and approval.

Musk is used to working long hours at his other companies, Tesla and SpaceX, and he has often said he expects a similar work ethic from those under him.

The eccentric entrepreneur is looking to bring the same break-neck pace of innovation and iteration from his other companies over to Twitter. He noted earlier this week that Twitter’s user numbers have “increased significantly” since he took over.

Twitter’s new owner and CEO has already made a splash by introducing a $7.99/month Twitter Blue subscription that includes account verification. In addition, he has put rush orders on new features like ‘Paywalled Video.’

Musk also warned Twitter employees of ongoing economic uncertainty, telling them that “the road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed.”

The bulk of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising, and the platform has been bleeding advertisers and the revenue they bring ever since Musk took it private. Musk said he wanted to push out verification subscriptions quickly to offset the revenue decay and diversify Twitter’s earnings.

“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” he wrote to employees. “We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”

You can check out Musk’s full email over at Business Insider.