No one can say that Elon Musk is not doing his best to change things on Twitter, after completing the tortuous process, not without controversy and a legal battle, to buy the company. Yesterday he hid behind a black economic outlook to go further. After the massive and indiscriminate dismissals and after the no less controversial decision to turn it into a paid social network, yesterday it was the employees' turn again.
The millionaire investor sent an email to Twitter employees, who are mostly working remotely, ordering them to return to the office immediately for at least 40 hours a week and warning them of "tough times ahead." A pair of emails marked Musk's first company-wide message to employees who survived last week's mass layoffs. Many have had to rely on the eccentric manager's public tweets for clues about Twitter's future.
"I'm sorry this is my first company-wide email, but there's no way to sugarcoat the message," Musk wrote before describing a dire economic climate for companies like Twitter, which rely almost entirely on advertising. "Without significant subscription revenue, there's a good chance Twitter won't survive the next recession," Musk said. "We need about half of our subscription revenue."
Musk's memo followed a livestreamed conversation trying to calm major advertisers on Wednesday and the near-simultaneous firing of their top executives. Everything happens at top speed and almost nothing is good. Reality beats the worst dreams.
Musk assured employees that "the priority in the last ten days" was developing and launching Twitter's new subscription service for $8 a month that includes a blue check mark next to the name of paying members. The brand was previously only for verified accounts. But this has not been enough and Musk has now taken it with his staff on account of remote work policies.
As in so many companies, the pandemic prompted Twitter to allow team leaders to decide whether or not employees had to report to the office, on a case-by-case basis. This is over. On Wednesday, he ordered all employees to return to the office immediately. Musk told them that "remote work is no longer allowed" and that the road ahead is "arduous and will require hard work to succeed." He will personally review any exception requests.
