At the Twitter meetup, Elon Musk’s comments triggered the protest feature on the message board

The conversation was moderated by Twitter Marketing Director Leslie Berland. (File)

Elon Musk, who met in person employees of Twitter Inc. for the first time since signing a $44 billion deal to acquire the social network, telling employees they shouldn’t worry about job changes when he takes over – as long as the job Their is “special”, that is.

At Thursday’s plenary meeting, Musk sparked a flurry of harsh, frustrated and worried comments on internal message boards with his remarks on a number of topics, including layoffs. and his approach to remote work. In both cases, Musk said that employees would be safe from job cuts and could continue to work remotely if they were creating “extraordinary work”.

According to those who attended the meeting, Musk said: “The inclination definitely needs to be towards working in-person, but if someone is exceptionally brilliant, then remote work may be acceptable.” The billionaire, who is also the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., recently asked many employees at the electric car maker back to the office, sparking surprise among Twitter employees, who be allowed to freely work from anywhere in 2020 when the pandemic stops. down to offices around the world.

“If someone is excellent at what they do but can only work remotely, then firing them even though they’re doing a great job would be crazy,” Musk added. “So I’m definitely not in favor of things that are, like, crazy. I’m in favor of things that build a business and make it better.”

When asked about possible job cuts at Twitter, Musk did not confirm the upcoming staff cuts, but hinted that the San Francisco-based company needs better cost management. Twitter has taken several cost-cutting measures, including canceling scheduled company-wide retreats at Disneyland in early 2023.

“The company needs to be healthy. Right now costs are already exceeding revenue so it’s not a great situation,” he said. “Anyone who looks like a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about,” he added, noting that he wouldn’t take “acts that are destructive to the health of the company.”

Musk’s appearance at the meeting did not appease those concerned that the deal would lead to major upheaval at the company. An internal Slack channel for discussion of Musk’s comments, mostly filled with employees who were annoyed by his reply, some openly mocking the soon-to-be boss.

Employees are particularly mindful of Musk’s focus on “special” workers, according to three people familiar with the interactions and some joking about Musk’s offering. special treatment for these employees.

“The friendly reminder that you can be 10 minutes late to a meeting has told the world and still be very special,” one employee wrote on Slack, sarcastically alluding to the departure. Musk’s late for everyone on Thursday.

Some comments favor Musk. One employee posted that others were choosing to interpret Musk’s comments in the “least generous way possible,” even though Musk’s supporters are in the minority, the people who requested anonymity said.

Musk joined the video call in an unbuttoned white shirt and appeared to be dialing from his phone. He rambled through parts of the call – at a late point in the discussion, he mentioned aliens and “the meaning of life”, adding, “I see no evidence any fact about aliens.”

However, the conversation began with Musk sending a message to his audience, expressing “love” for Twitter’s service. Social media is a great way to get his thoughts out in the open, he said, and points out that his tweets alone can generate full-blown news stories. “Some people use their hair to express themselves. I use Twitter,” he said.

What Musk didn’t offer was a clear and strong intention to close the deal. Some in the company see Musk’s arrival as a positive sign that he’s intent on working out his $54.20-per-share deal, but Musk himself has been in recent weeks warned that he could walk away from the deal if Twitter doesn’t do more to prove its user base is mostly real people and not bots.

Musk addressed bot accounts and spam on the service at Thursday’s meeting, saying it’s important to have “transparency” on Twitter to build trust with users. He suggested that Twitter could start authenticating users’ identities through Twitter Blue, the company’s current subscription service.

The chat was moderated by Twitter Marketing Director Leslie Berland, who summarized some of the employee questions that were submitted ahead of time. Parag CEO Agrawal introduced Musk, though he and other top executives like chief financial officer Ned Segal did not speak during the roughly 45-minute interview, according to attendees.

While there’s no way of knowing which executives might leave once Musk takes over, the Tesla CEO has made it clear that he’s unhappy with Twitter’s current management. Perhaps that includes Agrawal, as well as Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, whom Musk has publicly criticized for her role in enforcing the company’s policies on hate speech and wrong information.

While Twitter’s stock fluctuated throughout the meeting and traded higher for a while even as the broader market fell, it ended the New York session down 1.7 percent at $37.36. 30% less than the price per share Musk agreed to pay.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)