Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter eliminated a large number of contract employees on Saturday, affecting anywhere from 4,400 to 5,500 workers, according to Platformerâs Casey Newton. As noted by Platformer and confirmed by other reports from Axios and CNBC, most contract employees didnât receive any notice that theyâve been terminated and only found out after losing access to the companyâs email and internal communications systems.
The job cuts follow layoffs that culled about half of Twitterâs workforce and slashed 15 percent of its trust and safety team. Platformer first reported about the mass firings on Saturday night, which span both US-based and global employees working in content moderation, real estate, marketing, engineering, and other departments.
Twitter reportedly failed to notify managers of these job cuts as well, who didnât realize their colleagues had been terminated until after seeing that their accounts have been deactivated in Twitterâs system. According to an internal email sent to contractors and obtained by Insider (which Insider says contractors didnât receive until after they learned theyâd been locked out of their accounts), Twitter explains that the job cuts are part of its âreprioritization and savings exercise.â It also informs employees their last day is Monday, November 14th, but that they wonât be expected to do anything.
Following Muskâs takeover, a number of Twitter executives have already resigned or been fired, and itâs possible that more employees may lose their job over the companyâs new in-person work policy. In a transcript of a Q&A session between Musk and employees obtained by The Vergeâs Alex Heath, Musk made it clear that workers must return to the office and that only âexceptional peopleâ can work remotely. âBasically, if you can show up in an office and you do not show up at the office, resignation accepted,â Musk said.
Twitter didnât immediately reply to a request for comment. The company no longer has a communications department.