FANTASTIC: Elon Musk fired 3,700 Twitter staff in one day – Elon Musk rehires Twitter workers after some were laid off by mistake – My Comments

[I'm chuckling a lot at the chaos Musk has unleashed at Twitter. This is wonderful. I don't care what happens to Twitter. But in many ways, I hope that it survives. I might even join Twitter myself later. This could be fun. It is a wonderful thing that has happened to Twitter. Everyone thought they were invincible, they were Gods … and now a nightmare has come upon them. I'm liking some of what Musk is up to. Jan]

Several of the 3,700 people fired are deemed too essential to the changes the billionaire wants to make

07 NOVEMBER 2022 – 15:50

KURT WAGNER AND ED LUDLOW

Twitter is heading into its second full workweek under Elon Musk with half its workforce, mounting losses and a couple of unexpected reversals to its plans.

The social media company laid off close to 3,700 people on Friday, only to reach out soon thereafter to dozens of employees who it decided were either fired in error or too essential to the changes the billionaire businessman wants to make.

Another of Musk’s key early goals — adding verification check marks for members of its monthly subscription service — is being delayed until Wednesday to avoid potential chaos during the US midterm elections.

The whiplash events, as described by people familiar with the situation or in an internal company memo posted on Slack, follow Musk’s own acknowledgment in a tweet that the company he and well-heeled partners bought for $44bn is losing $4m a day.

Twitter lopped its workforce as a way to trim costs after Musk’s acquisition, which closed in late October. Many employees learnt they lost their job after their access to companywide systems, such as email and Slack, were suddenly suspended. The requests for employees to return demonstrate how rushed and chaotic the process was.

A Twitter spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. Twitter’s plan to hire back workers was previously reported by Platformer.

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted on Friday.

Some regions were hit harder than others. The company fired more than 90% of its staff in India at the weekend, severely depleting its engineering and product staff, people familiar with the matter said. The cuts left the company with about a dozen staff in the growth market, they said.

Meta Platforms, which is also struggling to contain costs after investing heavily in its metaverse project, may announce job cuts this week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the plans. Layoffs at the Facebook owner, which are expected to affect thousands of workers, could begin as soon as Wednesday, the newspaper reported.

Twitter has close to 3,700 employees left, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk is pushing those who remain at the company to move quickly in shipping new features, and in some cases, employees have even slept at the office to meet new deadlines.

Twitter has said it is rolling out new features to its Twitter Blue subscription plan, offering a verification check mark for any user who pays the monthly fee. The company also said it will soon be launching other features, including half the ads, the ability to post longer videos and get priority ranking in replies, mentions and searches.

Twitter will issue the new blue verification check marks to users who pay $7.99 a month for the service starting on November 9, according to an internal company message that was posted on Slack. The company had previously planned to roll out the subscription feature on November 7, the day before the election.

“Widespread verification will democratise journalism and empower the voice of the people,” Musk said in a tweet.

The company received internal and external feedback that the verification process for its Twitter Blue programme could be ripe for abuse, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified. That raised concerns that candidates and other political actors might be impersonated on the site in the days before the US election.

Late on Sunday, Musk said Twitter would ban accounts that impersonate others, after several high-profile users changed their names and pictures to match the billionaire. Any name change at all will cause a temporary loss of a verified check mark.

Source: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bloomberg/news/2022-11-07-elon-musk-rehires-twitter-workers-after-some-were-laid-off-by-mistake/#:~:text=Several%20of%20the%203%2C700%20people,the%20billionaire%20wants%20to%20make&text=Twitter%20is%20heading%20into%20its,unexpected%20reversals%20to%20its%20plans.