Elon Musk drops ultimatum on Twitter staff, 'exceptional performance' or get out

The rollercoaster continues with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter, as the billionaire has recently given an ultimatum to all employees.

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Musk has sent out a company-wide email to all employees of the social media platform that gave employees a choice between accepting that they will be working long hours at high intensity with only "exceptional performance" constituting a "passing grade". The email also outlined what Musk deems as building "Twitter 2.0," and that engineers will have more of a say at the company over Design and Product positions as Musk believes that at its hear, Twitter is a "software and servers company".

The email was sent out on November 15 and states that anyone who doesn't accept these new working conditions by clicking the link provided in the email by 5 pm on November 17 will receive three months of severance. Musk titled the email "A Fork in the Road" and recently announced that Twitter will be relaunching the divisive Twitter Blue subscription service that caused the platform to be littered with accounts appearing official through the new paid-for verification badge, essentially impersonating public figures, celebrities, companies and more.

From: Elon Musk

To: Team [at Twitter]

Subj. A Fork in the Road

Date: Nov. 16, 2022 [time stamp removed]

Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.

Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway.

At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so l think this makes sense.

If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below:

[Link removed]

Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance.

Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.

Elon

Following the shaky launch of Twitter Blue, Musk has decided to relaunch the service on November 29. Musk has already said with Blue Verified's new release, users that decide to change their name will temporarily lose their verification check mark until Twitter reviews the account changes. At the moment, it's unclear what Musk's revision of Twitter Blue will look like or what new features will be thrown into the mix.

• Read more: Elon Musk drops date for Twitter Blue relaunch, and changing your verified name

Musk recently eluded to Twitter developers working on implementing end-to-end encryption for Twitter DMs as a software engineer discovered code being written for that very feature in Twitter for Android. It's unclear when this upgrade to Twitter's DM service would roll out.

• Read more: Elon Musk suggests that Twitter DMs will soon be end-to-end encryption

Judging by Musk's email, it seems the SpaceX CEO is attempting to clean house of every employee at the company that isn't willing to put in 110% effort into working at Twitter for the betterment of Twitter. Musk recently said that he would be sleeping at Twitter HQ in San Francisco until everything is organized, and it seems he's looking for employees with a similar level of dedication.

• Read more: Elon Musk says in interview after the power goes out that he's working too much

In other news, Elon Musk has announced Twitter has reached a new milestone, the second celebratory announcement since Musk took over the company on October 27.

• Read more: Elon Musk announces Twitter hits another milestone, posts a cheeky message