Could Elon Musk’s Twitter social frenzy be damaging his image as a successful billionaire?
Published on November 8, 2022
It only took a few days for Elon Musk to fire almost 50% of Twitter’s 7,500 employees via email and in the middle of the night. He justifies this destructive social plan with the need to reduce the losses of the company for which he paid 44 billion dollars. The problem: it decapitates the life force of the company and creates a huge legal and social risk, because these methods do not respect any social law, including American law.
The stories of the Twitter employees who were fired on the night of November 3-4 follow and resemble each other in the brutality of the process. They found that they could no longer access the social network when they got up, either through email or because their work sessions were unavailable. Elon Musk decided to brutally lay off the Twitter employees after several days of evaluating the “quality” of their work by Tesla developers. Before that, they were a global, committed and friendly team of young people working in Silicon Valley, as evidenced by Julie Steele, whose contract expired last week.
Twitter is very private. I’m leaving after 4 years full of experiences I never imagined and unbreakable leaps with many Tweeps. My head is held high knowing that I absolutely gave it my all. @TwitterComms: We have a lot to be proud of. Time to fly higher! #OneTeam pic.twitter.com/5tVUP575A6
— Julie Steele (@juliezsteele) November 4, 2022
The method surprised not only employees like Chris Younie who were not even sure that they would be fired, but had to guess it, but also users who already had several hundred thousand to leave the social network.
Well, that doesn’t look promising. Emails cannot be accessed. Mac won’t turn on.
But thankfully it happens at 3 o’clock. Really appreciate the thoughts on the timing front.
Meanwhile, to everyone on Twitter, you’re the best #OneTeam pic.twitter.com/iWyAPeURcm
— Chris Younie (@ChrisYounie) November 4, 2022
The first collective action against the social network
Elon Musk, who became the sole master of the board after dissolving the board of directors of Twitter, which he took out of the stock exchange listing as he bought it, spent less than a week to send off the branch he had just closed. s ‘Sit down.
These fast-track methods are illegal in California, where a large company can’t fire workers en masse without honoring the two-month deadline for filing a social plan. On this basis, the first collective action has already been filed by a group of employees to cancel the dismissal. Among them was Frenchman Emmanuel Cornet, who explained his dismissal in an email that said, “his recent behavior broke several rules, which he did not specify.”. He added that the employee who gave birth the day before was also dismissed.
If the brutality of these layoffs is combined with elements of discrimination, Elon Musk could be ordered to pay even more workers’ compensation. For now, he’s content to justify his move by Twitter’s daily losses: $4 million.
Deviation risks
Therein lies the weakness of the often-volatile billionaire’s strategy of taking over Twitter. Until then, his escapades were forgiven in the face of the success of Tesla and Space X, two disruptive creations. But how to integrate into this story the transformation of the social network, a favorite platform of conspiracy and alternative truth experts and full of fake accounts?
It’s hardly a good idea to start off by taking down half of the people who built the business you just bought and who make up a large part of its value. Moreover, Elon Musk himself has already partially revised his strategy, as he recalled some of his employees and postponed the payment policy for the certification of accounts.
What will be left of Elon Musk’s version of Twitter? He continues to humbly affirm that he wants to make it the most relevant source of information in the world and that it is up to the Twitter community to validate what is posted on their platform.
Twitter should become the most accurate source of information about the world. This is our mission.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
An open door to all excesses, especially since his first decisions did not concern the banning of fake accounts fed by click farms influencing the polls in Brazil, as in the United States. His calls to vote Republican in the run-up to the midterm elections, like the firing of hacker comedian Kathy Griffin, show there are limits to his understanding of free speech, and above all, he’s become an objective ally. From Donald Trump!
Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, @AC_HT_Novethic CEO
