Elon Musk’s first email to Twitter staff has reportedly ended all remote working, with staff expected to be in the office at least 40 hours a week. According to Bloomberg, the new Twitter owner has warned staff the company faces “difficult times ahead”.
Musk completed his $44bn takeover of the social media platform nearly two weeks ago and has already cut around half of the company’s staff and changed several aspects of the site, including how verification works and introducing a new paid subscription service. Musk reportedly told staff there was “no way to sugarcoat the message” about Twitter’s economic situation and said “intense work” would be needed to help it succeed.
He is also said to have eliminated so-called days of rest from Twitter calendars – a companywide day off which was introduced during the pandemic when staff first switched to remote working. Before the Tesla boss completed his takeover on October 28, Twitter had a relaxed policy around remote work, which became widespread during the pandemic but is now to be banned unless personally approved by Musk.
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In his message, he is said to have also told staff he wants to see subscriptions – including the revamped Twitter Blue service he has introduced – account for half of Twitter’s revenue. Twitter Blue launched in the UK on Thursday (November 10), with users able to pay a £6.99 monthly fee to get a verification blue tick badge on their profile, with other additional perks said to be coming in the future.
The scheme has been controversial because of its chaotic launch and concerns raised by some that it will enable misinformation and allow bad actors to appear more authentic by posing as public figures and simply paying for verified status. Bloomberg reported that in a separate email, Musk told staff the platform’s priority over the next few days should be “finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam”.
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