Innovator or Cold-Blooded... Musk Will Ruthlessly Fire If Goals Are Not Met

Musk Urges "Work Day and Night"... Pressures Twitter Employees to Expand Monetization
Mass Layoffs of China Office Staff Following Poor Initial Tesla Sales in China

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lee Gyehwa] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has ordered Twitter employees to work day and night to ensure the expansion of Twitter's paid accounts project is realized.

According to CNN and IT media The Verge on the 31st of last month (local time), Elon Musk is discussing various monetization options, including allowing users to edit ads during service use and raising fees for 'Blue Tick,' mainly used by companies, media outlets, NGOs, and celebrities.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post (WP) reported that Musk's Twitter acquisition team is conducting the first round of layoffs, including employee evaluations, aiming to reduce about 25% of the total staff.

With the company’s internal atmosphere unsettled and the push for monetization overlapping, Twitter employees' morale is extremely low. According to The Verge on the same day, employees involved in the monetization project said, "The deadline for launching this feature is November 7, and we were warned that failure to meet the deadline would result in dismissal."

Additionally, according to the Financial Times (FT), senior Twitter officials said, "Musk considers this the most important task for the company," and "Twitter employees are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round to realize Musk's vision, suffering extreme pressure."

Elon Musk, regarded as an innovative entrepreneur, is the founder of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, and is also the real-life model for the movie Iron Man. However, in business, he has often shown a cold-blooded side, as seen in the Twitter case.

Musk ousted Martin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla, blaming him for product launch delays. After entering China in 2013, he showed a similar attitude. He expected to sell one-third of Tesla’s total by the end of 2014 in the Chinese market, but the results were dismal. From January to September 2015, only 3,025 Model S cars were sold in China, less than 10% of Tesla’s total sales. Consequently, Musk laid off many employees at the China office. Rumors say the reduction reached 30%.

According to Musk’s colleagues, "His dictionary does not include the word 'no,' and he expects everyone around him to have the same attitude." They added, "He fires people for spelling mistakes in emails or press releases and gets furious if employees hesitate to work on Sundays or holidays, accusing them of lacking dedication." There is also an anecdote where he told employees who wanted to see their families on weekends, "Once we go bankrupt, you will be able to see your families as much as you want."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.