Twitter to announce mass layoffs at 4pm: "The house is melting down"

Musk earlier told investors that he intended to reduce the company’s staff from around 7,500 down to just over 2,000. “It’s total chaos”, says one staff member.

Thousands of employees at Twitter are expected to lose their jobs today, with staff notified about the layoffs in an email on Thursday, according to multiple news reports.

The social network's offices are temporarily closed globally, and workers will find out their fate by 4pm UK time. “Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the internal memo to the employees noted.

“We recognise 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.”

Musk has already made several changes to the company, starting with the firing of three of its top executives, including chief executive Parag Agrawal.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that he planned to cut about 3,700 jobs at Twitter - accounting for roughly half the company’s workforce. Those who are losing their jobs will receive a message to their personal email address, while employees staying on will get an email to their work account.

The company employs around 8,000 workers in total and has staff across North and South America and the Europe and APAC regions. The company said all badge access will be suspended "to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data".

Speaking to NBC News, an anonymous Twitter staff member said the memo was the first communication employees had received since Musk acquired the company on 27 October. "It's total chaos, house melting down, everyone looking towards this email," they said.

Staff have started sharing messages of support with each other on Twitter, using the workplace hashtag #OneTeam.

An example is shown below:

According to Bloomberg, Twitter is being sued over the layoffs,  which cited a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco court.

Staff claim the company is in violation of federal and California law because employees have not been given enough notice.


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