CEO, Elon Musk, today, announced in his first email to Twitter employees, the end of remote work and warned of “difficult times ahead.”
The email, which was issued late last night, stated that the economic downturn in the US could not be “sugarcoated” in any way. He was quoted in Bloomberg’s report as saying that the “weaker economic environment” will have an effect on companies like Twitter that rely on advertising revenue.
In another part of the email, he stressed that remote work would no longer be tolerated and that employees were expected to be at the office for at least 40 hours each week. He was quite selective about the situations in which he would permit remote work, and that as the new head of Twitter, he has the authority to determine the criteria that govern the hours. “The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” he added.
He further noted, “over the next few days, the absolute top priority is locating and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”
Musk’s decision to end remote work comes after Twitter made it possible for its employees to work from anywhere as part of a long-term contract with those employees.
Elon Musk has also removed “days of rest” from the work schedules for Twitter employees. During the pandemic, a monthly day off was instituted for the whole workforce of the organisation.
This is the latest in a series of shifts at Twitter implemented by Elon Musk’s administration since he took charge about two weeks ago.
He has terminated the employment of almost half of Twitter’s workers. Nearly half of the company’s employees lost their jobs as the CEO ordered a massive layoff.
Musk has also raised the price of Twitter Blue to $8 a month and added user verification. According to the email, the new CEO of Twitter wants subscriptions to make up 50% of the company’s revenue.
In addition, a separate email claims that over the following few days, he will hunt down and ban any confirmed bots, trolls, or spammers.
Elon Musk’s plans to set up a payment system on Twitter where users can link their bank account details to the social platform seems to be materialising. A New York Times report, via Engadget, has confirmed that the company filed registration paperwork to process payments with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) last week.
According to the report, Musk held a Spaces discussion which he spoke about the upcoming feature in relation to creators. Musk explained how the platform needs to enable monetization for creators to entice them to post their work on the platform. “Now we can say that, okay, you’ve got a balance in your account, do you want to send money to someone else within Twitter?” the executive said.
