Elon Musk met directly with Twitter Inc. employees for the first time; since signing the $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform. He told staffers that they shouldn’t worry about changes to their jobs once he takes over. Adding to it, “as long as their work is “exceptional,” that is”.
At an all-hands meeting this Thursday, he prompted a flurry of snarky, frustrated and concerned commentary on internal message boards. It was attached with his remarks on several topics, including potential plans for layoffs and his approach to remote work. In both instances, Musk said that employees would be safe from job cuts. They can continue to work remotely if they are creating “exceptional work.”
Musk’s remarks to Twitter employees
“The bias definitely needs to be strongly towards working in person; but if somebody is exceptional, then remote work can be OK,” said Musk. The billionaire, who is also the CEO of Tesla Inc., recently demanded that many employees at the electric-car maker return to the office. This sparked consternation among Twitter employees; who were given the freedom to work from anywhere in 2020 as the pandemic shut down offices around the world.
“If someone is excellent at what they do but can only work remotely, to then fire them even though they are doing excellent work would be insane,” Musk added. “So I’m definitely not in favour of things that are, like, mad. I’m in favour of things that build the business and make it better.”
“The company does need to get healthy. Right now the costs exceed the revenue so that’s not a great situation to be in,” he said. “Anyone who is obviously, a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about,” he added, noting that he won’t take “actions which are destructive to the health of the company.”