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☆ Twitter could slowly break under Elon Musk as technical glitches pile up. Insiders lay out how it will happen.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sites like Twitter do not simply go dark in the face of issues that cannot be fixed quickly – or at all. Still, a sudden, catastrophic failure for Twitter is "unlikely," said a former Twitter executive with knowledge of its technical systems. Another likely scenario is that Twitter won't see a single major failure, but small issues or glitches will build up, the former executive said. One current Twitter engineer said Thursday he and other remaining colleagues realized they now "have to maintain Twitter and learn everything." Are you a Twitter employee or someone else with insight to share?

☆ The founder of Twitter rival Mastodon says he's 'not a fan' of Elon Musk's 'erratic' leadership style
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Eugen Rochko told BBC Newsnight that Elon Musk's leadership style "shows incompetence." Mastodon has recently surged in popularity as users seek alternatives to Musk's Twitter. "Frankly, I'm not a fan of it," Eugen Rochko told BBC Newsnight on Friday. The platform's popularity has surged, with downloads up more than 650% in the 12 days following Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, according to SensorTower. Rochko told Newsnight he created Mastodon precisely because he recognised the importance of Twitter as a tool for global communication.

☆ Elon Musk fired Twitter's head of sales after begging her to stay at the company, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Robin Wheeler, Twitter's head of ad sales, is no longer working for the company, Platformer reported. Wheeler was fired a week after reports said Elon Musk convinced her not to resign. One source also told Insider Wheeler had been fired but declined to give additional details. Since Elon Musk acquired the social media platform for $44 billion at the end of October, the company has made sweeping cuts to its workforce of 7,500 employees. "It might not seem like a big deal, but I don't think it's appropriate to treat employees like this," one worker told Insider's Jyoti Mann.

☆ Twitter staff tell colleagues who quit not to turn the situation into an 'us-vs-them Squid Game'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter staff tell colleagues who quit not to turn the situation into an "us-vs-them Squid Game." One said: "I just hate that he is the kind of person that makes me feel like everything is a trap." Employees took to the anonymous forum Blind to air their grievances and urge colleagues to understand why they may decide to stay on. Lets keep this about the people, and not turn it into us-vs-them Squid Game type of s**t," the user added. Another Blind user said he didn't click the link, responding to another user asking whether Twitter was worth joining.

☆ Elon Musk posts pictures with engineers as they leave a Twitter 'code review' at 1:30 a.m.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk posted pictures with engineers at Twitter's San Francisco offices early on Saturday. The billionaire emailed engineers on Friday to ask for help from those who can "write software." "Just leaving Twitter HQ code review," the billionaire wrote in a Saturday tweet at about 1:30 a.m. PT. In a series of emails sent about 24 hours earlier, Musk asked to meet with "anyone who actually writes software" on Friday afternoon. Musk told employees to decide by Thursday afternoon whether to sign up for his "extremely hardcore" version of "Twitter 2.0" or resign.

☆ The sad, beautiful story behind 'Love Where You Work' – the hashtag being used by laid-off Twitter staff
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It has since been used by dozens of Twitter staff who were laid off in recent weeks to say farewell. One sent an email to the whole UK office asking if anyone could knit. The next day she tweeted an image of herself wearing the blanket with a caption saying "keeping cozy with my @TwitterUK @Twitter blanket," alongside the hashtags #LoveWhereYouWork and #Family. The UK office wanted to commemorate Mosley so decided to put up a sign that read "Love Where You Work." As Twitter started opening more offices around the world, other staff members said they also wanted to do the same.

☆ Twitter Workers Said to Resign By the Hundreds After Elon Musk Set Employment Ultimatum
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Alexa Corse | Sarah E. Needleman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Twitter Inc. suffered a new wave of departures Thursday to its already depleted workforce after many employees rejected Elon Musk’s demand that they commit to working “long hours at high intensity” in order to stay. Many staffers spent the past day weighing their options, after waking up Wednesday to an overnight email in which Mr. Musk told them to fill out a form by Thursday, 5 p.m. ET, to indicate if they want to remain at the company and are willing to be “extremely hardcore.” Employees who don’t opt in will be given three months of severance, Mr. Musk said.

☆ Twitter Workers Say Farewell After Musk Ultimatum
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Alexa Corse | Sarah E. Needleman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Twitter Workers Brace for Another Round of Departures as Musk Ultimatum Looms
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Alexa Corse | Sarah E. Needleman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Twitter employees are bracing for another round of departures, after Elon Musk issued an ultimatum telling them to commit to “long hours at high intensity” or leave. Many staffers spent the past day weighing their options, after waking up Wednesday to an overnight email in which Mr. Musk told them to fill out a form by Thursday, 5 p.m. ET, to indicate if they want to remain at the company and are willing to be “extremely hardcore.” Employees who don’t opt in will be given three months of severance, Mr. Musk said.

☆ Less than half of Twitter's remaining employees signed up to work for Elon Musk's 'hardcore' vision, leaving leaders scrambling to convince people to stay
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk ordered Twitter employees to sign up for an "extremely hardcore" future. Now company leaders and Musk himself are trying to convince some people to stay. In other words, less than 2,000 Twitter employees plan to stay. So many employees refused to sign up that it took Musk and his transition team off guard, another person familiar with the company said. After Musk's deadline passed, Twitter's largest Slack channel "social watercooler" was "flooded again" with the salute emoji, a former employee said.

☆ Twitter recruiters are already asking external engineers to join 'Twitter 2.0 — an Elon Company,' reports say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter recruiters are reportedly reaching out to engineers asking them to join "Twitter 2.0." Less than half of Twitter's roughly 4,000 staff agreed to commit to Musk's "extremely hardcore" Twitter, Insider's Kali Hays reported. One external engineer received a message from Twitter recruiters asking if they wanted to join "Twitter 2.0 - an Elon company," per The Verge. Orosz said on Twitter: "Twitter starting to hire externally. Internally, polls of Twitter software engineers show only around 25% of engineers planned to stay at the company for "Twitter 2.0," per The Pragmatic Engineer.

☆ CEOs can't bully their employees anymore. Elon Musk's failed ultimatum to Twitter employees is proof of that.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter CEO Elon Musk gave workers an ultimatum: Accept tougher working conditions or leave. Musk's failed ultimatum is proof that workers won't accept aggressive leadership anymore. A good CEO's response shouldn't show aggression: While CEOs can demand workers do their best, they can't do so with such force and with such disregard for workers' wellbeing and still expect to get good results. Even among those with less freedom than well-paid tech employees, many have unionized to demand better compensation and working conditions. In response, Twitter closed its offices until Monday.

☆ Video shows Twitter employees who rejected Elon Musk counting down the seconds until they're fired in an empty office
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk gave Twitter workers an ultimatum to stay or leave by 5 p.m. Less than half of the company's remaining employees accepted the offer to stay, Insider reported. One employee posted a video of him counting down the seconds until he was set to be fired. Less than half of the company's remaining 4,000 employees accepted the offer to stay, Insider's Kali Hays reported. "30 seconds left — 35 seconds," the employee says in the video, posted Thursday just after 5 p.m.

☆ Elon Musk calls for 'anyone' left at Twitter who can write software to meet him and help him 'better understand' Twitter's tech
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter employees resigned en masse on Thursday in response to an earlier ultimatum from Musk. Musk is now calling for "anyone who actually writes software" at the company to meet him on Friday. In a set of emails sent around midnight PT, Musk asked to meet with "anyone who actually writes software" on Friday afternoon. The email came after a mass resignation on Thursday saw hundreds of Twitter employees resign in response to an ultimatum Musk offered earlier in the week. Below are complete copies of Musk's emails to Twitter staff:Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor at 2 pm today.

☆ A Twitter executive who left the company when Elon Musk took over has returned to lead its trust and safety team, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter has appointed Ella Irwin as its new head of trust and safety, The Information reported. Irwin had previously left Twitter in the first days of Musk's tenure but has now returned, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg reported that Irwin had previously left Twitter during the initial days of Musk's tenure, but was asked to return amid surging resignations. Irwin and Twitter did not respond to Insider's request for comment about her appointment to the position. Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, resigned on November 10.

☆ The death of Twitter won't be the dramatic explosion you might expect
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

So I'm confident saying Twitter won't wink out of existence, here one day and gone the next. That said, I'm also confident that Twitter won't be the same after Musk's gambit. Here's how I think will happen:Power users start to abandon ship. The combination of app unreliability and the increasingly-notable absence of power users and influencers will lead to average Twitter users spending less time on the site. If and when users stop refreshing Twitter because it's no longer reliable, they'll start spending more time on other platforms.

☆ Twitter had to assure employees that Elon Musk's infamous late-night email about his 'hardcore' vision for the company wasn't a phishing attack, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk emailed Twitter staff this week saying they must commit to his 'hardcore' vision for the company. Twitter was forced to clarify to staff that Musk's email wasn't a phishing attempt, per The WSJ. The document stated that Musk's email should be regarded as an official company communication and said: "This is not a phishing attempt," per The Journal. Fewer than half of Twitter's workforce chose to stay at the company after Musk's deadline passed Thursday, Insider's Kali Hays reported. Employees who declined to commit to Musk's vision by the Thursday deadline said they still had access to internal company systems such as email and Slack.

A top reason people quit their jobs is because of toxic workplace cultures, per MIT. Elon Musk's recent "extremely hardcore" ultimatum is an example of bad leadership. If you don't quit, there are some ways to mend your relationship like trying to find common ground. "A bad boss won't just jeopardize your career growth — they'll also negatively impact your personal life," says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert, author, and leadership coach. It's important to know whether you've got a bad boss on your hands so you can "take measures to mitigate the stress and own greater power in the relationship" as soon as possible, she adds.

☆ ‘80 for Brady’ trailer’s got game
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin star as a group of octogenarians who are hardcore Tom Brady fans who travel to Super Bowl LI. “That’s like 80 in people years.”“We’re 80 in people years,” Fonda’s character says. And, naturally, Brady makes an appearance. Brady told Variety he enlisted his friends and former Patriot teammates Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman to make cameos as themselves. Anytime I get my friends involved in things that I’m doing, it makes it that much more enjoyable for me.”

☆ Someone projected insults onto Twitter's San Francisco headquarters calling Elon Musk a 'space Karen' and a 'mediocre manchild'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Someone projected insults aimed at Elon Musk on the side of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters Thursday. The insults called the app's new CEO a "worthless billionaire," and a "mediocre manchild." Twitter employees were given an ultimatum to either take severance pay or work under Musk's new "hardcore" vision for Twitter. The message also called Musk a "worthless billionaire," a "mediocre manchild," and a "supreme parasite," among a host of other insults. A separate messages beamed onto the building said: "Elon Musk STFU," "#StopToxicTwitter" and "Musk's hellscape."

☆ Elon Musk abruptly shut down Twitter offices as workers resign en masse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter employees were told to leave offices immediately on Thursday, Insider confirmed. All offices were closed and employees' badge access was revoked, possibly until Monday. Insider confirmed that Twitter employees' badge access was suspended and that they were being told to leave the offices, which are expected to reopen on Monday. The latest closure came just over one week after Musk put an end to remote work at Twitter. In his first company-wide email since taking over, Musk told employees they would no longer be allowed to work remotely and needed to return to the office within days.

☆ Some Twitter staff hung up on Elon Musk as he tried to persuade them to stay during a last-minute video call
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk and his team were taken off guard by the number of staff who chose to take severance. With the workforce now 73% smaller than before his takeover, he tried to persuade key staff to stay. But as a deadline for staff to commit to the company hit, some hung up on Musk during a video call. Nobody was offered more money, but staff were urged to be excited about Musk's "vision" and Twitter's future potential, Insider previously reported. Insider reported that less than half of Twitter's remaining employees signed up to Musk's vision to "build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0."

☆ Elon Musk says he's not 'super worried' about Twitter staffers quitting in droves because the ‘best people are staying’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted that he's "not super worried" about Twitter staffers leaving. Musk said "the best people are staying," in response to a tweet by Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. Musk tweeted on Thursday evening that "The best people are staying, so I'm not super worried," in response to a tweet by Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sport's founder. Hey Elon Musk wanna do a Twitter space with me? Musk went on to tweet a series of memes joking about Twitter staffers exiting the company on Thursday night.

☆ Twitter employees who technically resigned on Thursday say they can still use internal systems, amid speculation the staff responsible for cutting access are also quitting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Staff who didn't sign up for Elon Musk's "hardcore" Twitter say they still have access to systems. This led to speculation that the the staff responsible for cutting access had also left Twitter. Some Twitter staff told The Verge they were speculating this was because the employees who handled access to internal company systems had also resigned. Out of about 4,000 remaining Twitter employees, less than 2,000 chose to stay on and work with Musk as the owner, Insider's Kali Hays reported. Thursday's resignations triggered a wave of salute emojis and farewell messages on Twitter's Slack, a former worker told Insider.

☆ Twitter employees flooded internal Slack channels with goodbye salute emojis and farewell messages as Musk's 'hardcore' stay-or-go deadline passed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter staff flooded internal Slack channels with salute emojis Thursday as Musk's stay-or-go deadline passed. ET Thursday to commit to Musk's "hardcore" vision of be laid off. Fewer than half of Twitter employees have accepted Musk's ultimatum, Insider reported. Twitter's largest Slack channel, "social watercooler," was flooded with salute emojis — company shorthand for saying goodbye to coworkers — Insider's Kali Hays reported. Twitter staff who appear not to have committed to Musk's vision also posted salute emojis on Twitter itself.

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