Twitter abruptly fires thousands of contract workers again "No prior notice given"

Elon Musk. (Photo by Reuters) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Tesla CEO Elon Musk has laid off thousands of contract workers at Twitter. Just a week after carrying out a massive layoff that cut half of the entire workforce, the sudden layoffs without sufficient prior communication are expected to continue unsettling internal members.

On the 13th (local time), the U.S. financial media CNBC reported, citing local outlet Platformer, that 4,400 of the 5,500 Twitter contract workers were laid off. It is known that overseas workers were also included among those laid off this time.

An internal source who requested anonymity said that the contract layoffs were not notified in advance to the full-time employees and team members who worked alongside them. The remaining employees learned about the layoffs of their contract colleagues after access to the internal messenger Slack, email, and intranet networks was blocked, as the contract workers did not receive prior notice.

After acquiring Twitter on the 28th of last month, Musk launched a high-intensity restructuring focused on workforce reduction, business reorganization, and infrastructure cost cuts. As part of this, last week, half (3,700) of the approximately 7,400 full-time employees were laid off.

At the time of the layoff notice last week, Musk said, "Unfortunately, the company is losing more than $4 million a day related to workforce reduction, so there is no choice," adding, "Those leaving were offered severance pay equal to three months, which is 50% more than legally required."

Following the dismissal of key executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, Musk also reduced the number of vice presidents and director-level executives.

With another surprise layoff just a week after cutting half of the employees, internal members’ anxiety is growing.

Earlier, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey posted on his Twitter after news of Musk’s mass layoffs, saying, "I know many are angry with me," and "I take responsibility for why everyone is facing this situation." He added, "The company grew too fast. I apologize for that."

This means that as Twitter rapidly grew, the ownership changed, resulting in employees facing the current difficult situation. He continued, "Past and present Twitter people are strong and resilient. No matter how tough the moment, they always find a way," and added, "Thank you and love to everyone who has worked at Twitter."

According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter’s workforce grew significantly from 2,000 employees at the end of June 2013, just before going public, to 7,500 employees by the end of last year.

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