In an email to Twitter staff, Elon Musk gives an ultimatum: commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter by 5pm ET on Thursday or leave with three months severance

It comes as Musk's first major feature, Twitter Blue Verified, was halted while the company probes issues that arose from its launch.

Washington Post 2022-11-16

Context & Ripple Effects

The ultimatum follows Musk’s earlier end to remote-work policies and demand for 40-plus-hour weeks and a compressed push to turn Twitter Blue into a paid verification product. With Twitter Blue Verified now paused over launch problems, the staffing demand arrives during an already disrupted product rollout.

Related coverage records that hundreds ultimately announced departures after the deadline, while Musk later tried to retain colleagues by softening his remote-work stance. The episode makes the workforce mandate an operational constraint, not merely a cultural reset.

First-order effects

Twitter employees must choose between accepting Musk’s stated working model and taking three months’ severance, putting immediate pressure on teams supporting the paused Twitter Blue Verified launch.
Musk risks losing institutional knowledge just as Twitter is investigating problems in its new verification product.

Second-order effects

The reported wave of departures forces Musk to shift from an ultimatum to retention efforts, as reflected in his later attempt to persuade colleagues to stay.
Twitter’s ability to resume Blue Verified depends more heavily on the remaining staff and on the outside personnel Musk had brought in from his other companies to assist Twitter.

Third-order effects

If workforce reductions and product deadlines continue to overlap, Twitter’s product roadmap will be shaped by a smaller, more centralized organization rather than by the teams that previously operated its services.
The sequence points to a management model in which employment terms are used to rapidly reset operating capacity, with product reliability becoming the near-term test of whether that model holds.

The trend: Twitter is combining a rapid cultural reset with accelerated monetization work, making workforce retention a determining factor in product execution.

Discussion

@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Scoop: Elon Musk just sent an email to all staff outlining “Twitter 2.0”, writing it will"need to be extremely hardcore". Long hours, high intensity. People need to click “yes” to confirm being part of this by 5pm ET tomorrow, else they get 3 months severance. More details:
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
Here's the text of the email Musk sent to Twitter staff overnight. Those who don't commit to being “extremely hardcore” by 5pm ET today must leave the company. ‼️ Story: https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@zoeschiffer Zoë Schiffer on x
“Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade. Twitter will be much more engineering driven. Design & product will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway.” 2/
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Also note that, like with eveything Elon does, all of it seems to assume California ‘at will employment’ applies globally. When Twitter has employees in other countries with strict labor laws. I assume HR will scramble to “translate” this email to account for local regulation.
@mnateshyamalan Soul Nate on x
can't believe my stupid ass has imposter syndrome while elon musk is confidently marching around twitter HQ and chewing on wires until something breaks
@ariehkovler Arieh Kovler on x
“At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company”. No, it isn't. It's a social network. At the heart of social software is people, not servers. Servers and software matter too, but they aren't the heart. https://twitter.com/...
@nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
Twitter is, foremost, a public utility; it is not (just) a software and servers company. New guy still doesn't get it. And likely never will. https://twitter.com/...
@alexhern @alexhern on x
https://www.theguardian.com/ ... I don't think I've ever seen an opt-out voluntarily layoff scheme before
@liamkircher Liam on x
Elon Musk's leaked email. His 6 rules for insane productivity: (Used at Tesla, Space X & now Twitter) https://twitter.com/...
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
NEW: Elon Musk just issued an ultimatum to Twitter's remaining staff: Commit to a “hardcore” Twitter or accept three months severance. It went out in a midnight email to all staff, and said they have until Thursday at 5p ET to respond or they're laid off https://www.washingtonpos…
@paulg Paul Graham on x
In both those companies, people die if the software doesn't work right. Do you really think he's not up to managing a social network?
@rottenindenmark Michael Hobbes on x
The events surrounding Elon Musk the last two weeks are a great reminder that, despite all the hand-wringing about “cancel culture,” the real threats to workers and free speech in America almost exclusively come from the powerful.
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
Twitter had negative $159 million in adjusted free cash flow first half of 2022. Twitter set $ on fire each minute. Musk owes ~$1 billion in cash a year on the debt interest alone. And this math isn't great. DAUs don't matter if the cash isn't there. https://www.washingtonpost.co…
@moorehn Heidi N. Moore on x
🎶this is abusive management🎶🎶 https://twitter.com/...
@paulg Paul Graham on x
It's remarkable how many people who've never run any kind of company think they know how to run a tech company better than someone who's run Tesla and SpaceX.
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
Twitter's “top 1 percent of U.S. users — who are in turn the ones most likely to shell out $8 — earn the service more than $40 each month in revenue”. Halving the ads for those users is *terrible* business. Musk's sums don't remotely add up. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@zoeschiffer Zoë Schiffer on x
NEW: Elon Musk sent Twitter staff an email with the subject line “a fork in the road.” He said: “to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mens working long hours at high intensity.” 1/
@katymontgomerie @katymontgomerie on x
Why would any engineer sign up to this when they can get the same money elsewhere, working sensible hours, working for someone who isn't a prick? https://twitter.com/...
@whiteroseafa @whiteroseafa on x
The only kind of people that will want to work there will be ideologues, sycophants, and junior engineers looking to boost their resumes. It's going to be a disaster. https://twitter.com/...
@tante @tante on x
It's amazing how you could write a “The worst things to do as a manager” book by just reporting what Elon Musk does. Like: The best heuristic for being a good manager is just to think “what would Elon do?” and doing the opposite. https://twitter.com/...
@migueldeicaza Miguel de Icaza on x
High tech workers should unionize. Every mediocre leader and manager looks up to Elon will try to pull a stunt like this during the recession. Unions are the tools workers have to get fair treatment, if you don't use this tool, management will take as much as they can. https://tw…
@zsk Zoe Kleinman on x
Seeing lots of comment about how grim this is but it's also how large parts of the world work - especially China. https://twitter.com/...
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Software engineers still at Twitter I am talking with are happy/relieved on this email. Many wanted to leave and were interviewing so this makes it easy for them a I leave. For those on visas tied to employment, this won't make it easier though. Twitter 2.0 starts tomorrow?
@joshscherr Josh Scherr on x
Hahahahahaha seriously fuck this guy into the sun Nothing would be more glorious than watching the rest of the remaining workforce collect their severance and bail EM: perpetual Twitter Main Character & Sole Employee https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
“Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to Twitter employees Wednesday morning: commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave the company with severance” - he probably should have done this before unleashing weeks of chaos and confusion. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@jortsthecat @jortsthecat on x
Step 1: Get your colleagues contact info ‘for holiday cards’ Step 2: Use info to organize https://twitter.com/...
@adamndsmith Adam Smith on x
Twitter data suggests most of the people buying Twitter Blue are promoting three things: right wing politics, cryptocurrency, and porn. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@emilygorcenski Emily Gorcenski on x
Work will never love you https://twitter.com/...
@oliviasolon Olivia Solon on x
Click YES if you like me https://twitter.com/...
@rossmccaff Ross McCafferty on x
has this guy got some kind of fetish for being sued over employment law? https://twitter.com/...
@riptari @riptari on x
What could possibly go wrong! https://twitter.com/...
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
My take is that given everything that has been going on with Twitter, this is a positive step. It does not sugarcoat what kind of culture to expect: people already had a glimpse of it anyway. It also offers an easy way out to anyone on the fence, with decent severance pacakge.
@sarahoconnor_ Sarah O'Connor on x
Another busy day ahead for Twitter's employment lawyers in countries outside the US! https://twitter.com/...
@skilldrick Nick Morgan on x
🫡 https://twitter.com/...
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Scoop: another ~10 Twitter employees who made sassy or critical remarks about Twitter's current leadership on a Twitter internal Slack channel have been terminated overnight. Several were respected sw engineers. One person was told they are let go “for recent behaviour”.
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Elon now hanging out in Libs of TikTok's replies making ableist comments and bashing his former staffer https://twitter.com/...
@thinkingfish Yao Yue on x
After 12 amazing years and 3 weeks of chaos, I'm officially fired by Twitter. Never expected I would have stayed this long, and never expected I would be this relieved to be gone. I have a lot of stories to tell. But to my fellow (ex-)tweeps- #LoveWhereYouWorked 🫡 https://twitter…
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@unusual_whales I would like to apologize for firing these geniuses. Their immense talent will no doubt be of great use elsewhere.
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
Elon Musk has been directing subordinates to comb through Twitter's Slack and make lists of people making fun of him or his plans for firing. They've also been monitoring employee's tweets. Latest w/ @kateconger and @MikeIsaac) https://www.nytimes.com/...
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Musk is mocking the sw engineers he's fired at Twitter on the way out. Tech is a pretty small community. These aren't faceless people, but ones who built up lots of goodwill w the tech community. Striking to see what their peers in tech are writing: messages of support & praise. …
@mikecvet Mike Cvet on x
It's hard for people on the outside to appreciate how nonsensical this selective “policy” enforcement is. The team responsible for the serving of 10MM+ tweets / second for internal and user-facing use cases is down to like 2 people. Good luck shipping basically... anything? https…
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
It's important to note that Twitter has long cultivated a culture of internal dissent: “Communicate fearlessly to build trust.” No internal codes of conduct have changed since Elon took over. So this is all out of the blue.
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
Employees say it appears that around 20 people have been fired so far for their Slack posts.
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
Here's one of the affected employees, who had pushed back on Musk's tweets blaming performance issues on Twitter's architecture. “One of the absolute best engineers we had,” one employee tells me. “A legend in her area of expertise.” https://twitter.com/...
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
This follows of letting go of four software engineers the past day who have publicly corrected or criticized Elon Musk. People I'm talking with are surprised that as little as supporting their peer seemed to warrant termination. https://twitter.com/...
@frankluntz Frank Luntz on x
The “free speech absolutist” has had a change of heart. https://twitter.com/...
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
multiple contacts of mine shared screenshots of a public slack thread in which the CEO was referred to as a “petulant man child.” wild that this is the kind of thing that gets you fired nowadays. https://twitter.com/...
@briannawu Brianna Wu on x
3/ It is inevitable that Twitter is going to technically crash. Musk has fired the people who understand the infrastructure, is firing people who question him and he's certainly not going to pay for a massive refactor projects. https://twitter.com/...
Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
Elon Musk can't take a joke
@ericfrohnhoefer @ericfrohnhoefer on x
🫡 https://twitter.com/...
@tweetsbyparker @tweetsbyparker on x
in honor of removing the device indicator in tweets, I want to pay tribute to dorothy https://twitter.com/...
@bgleib Ben Leib on x
As the former tech lead for timelines infrastructure at Twitter, I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he's talking about https://twitter.com/...
@elivalley @elivalley on x
Anybody who's referred to Musk as a “free speech absolutist” and not as one of the most ruthless opponents of free speech in generations is a liar or a mark https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life @carnage4life on x
More Twitter employees are publicly criticizing Elon for making up stories about how Twitter works and getting fired. It's becoming a wave of mass insubordination with Twitter engineers going out in a blaze of glory. Every time I think this acquisition can't get worse, it does. h…
@schrep Mike Schroepfer on x
Basic internet math for @elonmusk's claim load time in India is 20s because of 1200 RPC calls (v.s. 2s in US): Bangalore->SF is ~250ms 1200 *.25s = 5 minutes! Way off!! 20s load time = MAX of 80 sequential calls Reality is likely 5-10? 1200 is happing inside datacenter? https://t…
@holman Zach Holman on x
Pretty incredible thread where Elon confuses how GraphQL works, thinks the Android client itself is making one thousand requests, and then publicly fires an employee who corrects him. Twitter's doing great, tho https://twitter.com/...
@jessefeinman @jessefeinman on x
Same, the best way to go! https://twitter.com/...
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
@Carnage4Life Not seen so many tech people going out in public, taking a deliberate stand. The 4th software engineer fired for the same thing, and the first non-US employee. https://twitter.com/...
@cfarivar @cfarivar on x
Elon has now deleted the “he's fired” tweet. AFAIK, @EricFrohnhoefer still lost his job. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@apark2453 @apark2453 on x
If you were looking for dozens of “well duh there are consequences for speech” and “so what, he has the right to do that” from dudes who screeched endlessly about how Twitter having the right to ban speech doesn't mean they ever should, you can find it in the replies here. https:…

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