Twitter has informed its employees that the company’s office buildings will be closed indefinitely, effective immediately.
Employees were informed that the offices would reopen on November 21.
It did not explain the change.
The announcement comes amid reports that a significant number of employees have resigned in response to new owner Elon Musk’s demand that they commit to “long hours at high intensity” or leave.
“Please continue to comply with company policy by not discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press, or elsewhere,” the message continued.
There are indications that a significant number of employees resigned because they did not accept Mr. Musk’s new terms.
A former Twitter employee who wished to remain anonymous stated to the BBC, “When the dust settles today, I believe there will be fewer than 2,000 people left.”
They claimed that their entire team had been terminated.
“His manager, the manager of that team, was terminated. The manager’s manager was then terminated. The executive above was terminated on the first day of employment. So no one remains in that chain of command.”
Another individual stated that they had resigned despite being willing to work long hours.
I didn’t want to work for someone who repeatedly threatened us via email that ‘only exceptional Twitter users should work here’ when I was already putting in 60-70 hours per week,” they explained.
As a result of staff departures, former Twitter vice-president Bruce Daisley told the BBC that former Twitter engineers believe the social media platform could “fail as early as Monday.”
“A significant number of features appear to be contingent on having engineers on-site,” he said.
“If these engineers have left, then the product’s viability is threatened.
Therefore, there are a large number of people posting elsewhere on the Internet.
Pledge allegiance
This week, Mr. Musk informed Twitter employees that they must work long hours and be “extremely hardcore” or leave the company.
The Washington Post reported that in an email to employees, the new owner of the company stated that workers must sign the pledge if they wish to remain.
Mr. Musk stated that those who did not sign up by Thursday, November 17 would receive three months of severance pay.
The company announced earlier this month that it would be eliminating roughly half of its workforce.
Employees have tweeted with the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked and a saluting emoji to indicate their departure from the company.
Despite the turmoil within the company, Mr. Musk tweeted on Friday, “And… we’ve just reached another all-time high in Twitter usage lol.”
Frank Lesser, a satirist, replied, “‘Rome has never been this brightly lit at night!’ – Nero,” a reference to the Roman emperor who is rumored to have fiddled while Rome burned.
Before Mr. Musk assumed control of Twitter, the company had approximately 7,500 employees. The majority of the tens of thousands of contract workers employed by the company are believed to have been laid off.
The world’s richest person became Twitter’s CEO last month after purchasing the company for $44 billion (£37 billion).
Mr. Musk appeared unconcerned by rumors that Twitter was on the verge of closing, tweeting, “The best people are staying, so I’m not too concerned.”
He tweeted a skull and crossbones emoji and a meme depicting a tombstone bearing the Twitter logo in separate tweets.
