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Twitter employees 'sigh' as Elon Musk plans to sack over 5,000 workers following $44B takeover deal

Elon Musk informed potential investors that he intends to fire three-quarters of Twitter's 7,500 employees as part of his $44 billion proposal

Following the release of documents revealing Elon Musk's intention to reduce the company's personnel by 75%, Twitter employees have expressed their dread of being laid off on the social media platform. The billionaire told potential investors in his $44 billion offer to purchase the social media behemoth that he planned to fire three-quarters of its 7,500 employees, according to corporate records obtained by the Washington Post.

Experts say it would make it harder for the social media firm to crack down on what it considers to be "misinformation" and leave it with just a skeleton staff of just over 2,000 workers. Several colleagues are already expressing their fear that they could be one among the more than 5,000 Musk, 51, plans to sack after taking over Twitter. The repercussions of Musk's initiatives would be enormous since they would result in significantly more job losses than Twitter's present management had anticipated. However, it would give Twitter's management a means of saving face and preventing them from disclosing to one-quarter of the employees that they were aiming to reduce costs. Some employees took to Twitter in response to Musk's planning to chop down the staff at the social media platform. Staff designer Gene Ross joked, “*nervous laughter* Sooooo is anyone looking for a below average generalist?" Designer Steph Jeong seemed unfazed by the news and responded with a “Sigh."

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The reductions are being reportedly made as lawyers for the Tesla CEO are preparing the paperwork to finalize the takeover by October 28 and Twitter continues to post 266 job openings on LinkedIn. Senior financial analyst Parker Lyons said, “when you realize you are the 75%." Product designer Matt Walker tweeted: "Every decision Jack has made has gotten us to this point," followed by a meme in another tweet.

The corporation sought to cut the massive $1.5 billion it spent on employees last year by about $800 million. In addition, management intended to eliminate data centers that keep the website running for more than 200 million visitors daily as part of a significant infrastructure cutback. In contrast, Twitter administrators have rejected any layoffs, with General Counsel Sean Edgett warning staff to expect "tons of public rumors and speculations as the closing of the deal nears." “Since the merger agreement has been in place, there have been no plans for companywide layoffs,” he said, according to Bloomberg. 

According to experts, the drastic job cuts Musk is proposing would have an immediate impact on customers. Although he agreed that Twitter was overstaffed, Edwin Chen, a data scientist formerly in charge of its spam and health metrics and currently the CEO of content moderation startup Surge AI, claimed that the employee reductions Musk suggested were "unimaginable." He claimed that doing so would put Twitter users in danger of hackers and perhaps exposure to objectionable content like child porn. “It would be a cascading effect where you'd have service going down and the people remaining not having the institutional knowledge to get them back up, and being completely demoralized and wanting to leave themselves,” Chen told the Washington Post. Corporate governance specialist Nell Minow, however, claimed that the Tesla CEO was probably only pitching his grandiose ideas to possible investors and would struggle to carry them through. “He's got to be able to show if he makes those cuts, what happens next?” she asked, rhetorically. “What's he gonna replace it with, AI?”

Nonetheless, information obtained by the Washington Post indicates that executives were already preparing to implement layoffs at the corporation in response to its excessive employee costs the previous year. Additionally, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on hiring companies that pay employees to analyze reports of hate speech, child pornography, and other illegal information. Musk elaborated on the concept of layoffs, telling staff members in June that he didn't see a reason why underperforming individuals should be kept on the payroll.

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