Elon Musk Will Unleash a Firing Spree at Twitter

While the Elon Musk Twitter Merger deal is ongoing, a Washington Post report has revealed that the business tycoon plans to cut a significant part of the Twitter workforce in the coming months. The Tesla founder told prospective investors of Twitter that he planned to get rid of nearly 75% of the social media company's 7,500 workers. This would mean that a skeletal workforce would remain at Twitter.

Twitter Is Cutting Staff In Any Case

Twitter management has already made up its mind to let go of Twitter employees even if the Elon Musk Twitter acquisition falls through. The company is planning to save $800 million by the end of this year, "a number that would mean the departure of nearly a quarter of the workforce". "The company also planned to make major cuts to its infrastructure, including data centers that keep the site functioning for more than 200 million users that log on each day," added the report.

If you remember the beginning of the Musk Twitter merger tale, Twitter's board members were quite eager to sell their company to Musk. This new revelation explains why the management showed a deep interest in the proposal. Musk spearheading operations will have to lead the cost cuts and layoffs in the company relieving the company of announcing layoffs.  The report cites that the cost-cutting discussions were halted as soon as Musk announced a merger deal.

The Washington Post report says that in a Twitter town hall meeting Musk was asked about layoffs to which he answered that he didn’t see a reason low performers should remain employed. "Reshaping the workforce through rehiring chosen people" is a primary goal for Musk. He "thinks that dramatically slimming down the company is the first step to executing a turnaround strategy that would then involve bringing in more effective workers and profitable innovations."

Twitter plans to implement a performance review system called stack ranking. This system "grades employees on a numerical curve, so that a set percentage of workers will always be marked as low performers." Even though Twitter employees have protested, the social media giant has justified that this is the practice employed in many tech companies. It is interesting to note that Microsoft stopped this practice in 2013, as it led to bad work culture.

Employees Doomed

Twitter employees will just have to hang in there and probably look for better opportunities. Taking insights from Tesla factory workers, the employees that remain will have to be careful, especially with Musk's goal of doubling revenue in three years. Beginning with the stack ranking system, Musk might not be entirely mindful of employee welfare policies.

The social media giant is already struggling to curb misinformation and hate speech on its platform even with over 10,000 employees. Capitol violence happened on the watch of these many people. Just imagine the scale of misinformation that will spread with a lesser number of watchful eyes. Well, Musk will get what he wants finally, "Absolute free speech".