Last Friday, microblogging platform Twitter laid off half of its employees following Elon Musk"s $44 billion acquisition of the company and sacking of its CEO, CFO, and legal policy head. In a sudden turnaround, however, the social media company is now asking dozens of its laid off employees to return.
According to a report by Bloomberg, some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be essential to build the new features Musk envisions.
Casey Newton of news outlet Platformer even notes that one Twitter employee even asked their colleagues to ask those that were laid off if they will come back:
From Twitter Slack: “sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday.
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 6, 2022
The employee also said that they "might use some Android and iOS help."
As of today, Twitter has around 3,700 employees remaining, according to people familiar with the matter. These people are being pushed by "Chief Twit" Elon Musk to move quickly in shipping new capabilities, which has resulted in some employees sleeping in the office to meet deadlines. One of these features is the revamped Twitter Blue subscription, which will allow users to wear a blue tick on their profile for $8, among other benefits.
Meanwhile, those who have been laid off are hitting back by suing the company due to a lack of notice being given before they were fired.
Musk has also revealed that Twitter has seen a “massive drop” in revenue since he took over the platform. While he didn’t state how much revenue the platform had lost, companies such as General Motors, Audi, General Mills, and IPG have already paused their advertising on the platform.
Source: Bloomberg, Casey Newton