TWITTER temporarily closed its offices on Friday after thousands of employees were ordered to stay home and await their fate as the company announced mass layoffs, as part of new owner Elon Musk’s plans for a “major overhaul of the company”.

A company-wide email said Twitter employees would receive word on their future at the company via email at the start of business on Friday, according to AFP.

“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce,” the company email said.

The email did not give a number but the Washington Post and New York Times reported about half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees – mostly based in San Francisco – will be let go.

Employees told not to come to office; class action lawsuit filed against company

The company said in order to “ensure the safety” of employees and sensitive data, the main offices would remain closed and all badge access suspended. “Those on the way to the office should turn around and return home,” the email added.

It also said that those still employed at the company would find out on their company email, while those shown the door would get notice on their personal email.

AFP reported the office in Piccadilly Circus, London, appeared deserted, with no employees in sight. A member of security staff at Twitter’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin told reporters that nobody was coming into the office on Friday and employees had been told to stay home. Twitter employees vented their frustrations about the layoffs on the social network, using the hashtag #OneTeam.

User Rachel Bonn tweeted: “Last Thursday in the SF (San Francisco) office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9 month old. Just got cut off from laptop access.”

“Looks like Im unemployed yall. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack,” tweeted a user with the account @SBkcrn, whose profile is described as a former senior community manager at Twitter.

“Spoiler Alert: I do not have a job,” tweeted ex-employee Blake Herzinger as others reported losing access to company servers and email accounts.

The layoffs were expected since Mr Musk acquired the company and vowed to cut costs.

On Thursday, he directed Twitter’s teams to free up $1bn in annual infrastructure cost savings by slashing funding for cloud services and servers, the Guardian reported, adding that more layoff could be on the cards.

The Washington Post, citing an internal source, said the pending layoffs were anticipated to impact the company broadly, with cuts in marketing, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety.

Late on Thursday, a group of five Twitter employees, who had already been fired, filed a class action complaint — a lawsuit that permits one or more plaintiffs to file and prosecute on behalf of a larger group – against the company, Bloomberg reported.

They pleaded they had not been given the required 60-day notice period as required by law.

Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who filed a similar lawsuit over June layoffs at Musk’s automaker Tesla Inc., said she “will be monitoring the situation” at Twitter to ensure employees receive appropriate notice and compensation.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2022