Elon Musk’s Twitter Sends Memo to Staff About Lay Offs Starting Friday: Report

Earlier today, it was reported Elon Musk was set to reduce Twitter’s workforce by 50% as soon as this Friday, and now it appears those steps are starting to take place.

Twitter sent out a memo to employees on Thursday evening, detailing what’s going to happen on Friday, reports The Verge.

The memo starts off by saying, “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”

Twitter says the communication will take place via email and all employees will know by 9am PST on Friday, November 4, whether they still have a job or not. The email subject line will read: “Your Role at Twitter.” The memo instructs employees to check their email and spam folders.

“If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email,” says the memo. Those being laid off will get a notification in their personal email about next steps.

“To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home,” says the Twitter memo.

The memo concludes to say, “we acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.”

“We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process,” says the last line of the memo, signed off as just “Twitter”.

Musk and his transition team plan to overhaul the Twitter Blue subscription service, by introducing paid verification as part of the new $8 USD per month cost. Twitter is said to also bring the edit button to all users.

Other monetization strategies include paid videos for creators and the possible revival of the social networks Vine video app.

The New York Times reports Twitter is considering paid direct messages that will go through to high profile users, or “Very Important Tweeters” (VITs).

We should expect to hear more about these staff changes by 9am on Friday. Stay tuned…

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— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022