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Musk just took control of Twitter. Many engineers and department heads worked the weekend.
Several Musk allies have been added to a company directory, with Musk being named CEO internally.
Layoffs are widely expected to occur on Monday, but could happen as soon as Sunday night.
Elon Musk put Twitter employees to the test this weekend to see who is capable, and willing, of surviving under his new reign.
Many engineers worked Saturday and Sunday, even as they have been left to wonder about their employment status and who among the billionaire’s handpicked allies may be leading them in the days to come.
A current manager characterized Musk’s takeover as “unlike anything in my 20 year career.”
A number of Musk’s friends and high ranking associates were added over the weekend to Twitter’s internal directory and Slack, where Musk himself is now listed as CEO, as Insider reported. David Sacks, a venture capitalist, Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and Musk friend, and Steve Davis, president of The Boring Company owned by Musk, all have been added to the official staff directory, according to two people familiar with the changes.
The men were all listed under the title of staff software engineer, thought to be a placeholder for whatever title they may receive in the coming days. Calacanis for his part changed his Twitter bio to read “chief meme officer” of the platform. Musk’s Twitter bio describes him only as “chief twit,” despite his internal status as CEO. Sacks has made no public mention of his work at Twitter.
Other names to be added to the directory include Andrew Musk, an engineer at Neuralink and thought to be of no relation to Elon Musk, and RJ Sekator, a leader in Tesla’s autopilot division. Workers have also noticed a James Musk being sent and CC-ed on internal documents. Musk has a 16 year old son, Saxon James Musk, whom he frequently mentions on Twitter, although the Twitter workers have yet to see any confirmation that James Musk is of any relation to their new owner.
Workers have received little or no communication from Musk or his leadership team in recent days, three employees told Insider, despite Musk officially taking control of Twitter Thursday evening. All asked not to be identified discussing internal company matters. A representative of Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.
Still, many engineers and vice presidents at the company worked through the weekend, particularly those who have decided to try to stay at Twitter and try to keep their jobs.
“Propinquity is huge right now,” one of the people said, saying employees feel it’s better to be close to the action. There’s a sense among workers that some of the recent things they’ve been asked to do, like print out their recent coding work for Musk to look at (only to be told to throw it away) and work the weekend, is a test to show who has been working hard and who is likely to keep doing so.
“This is it,” one of the people familiar said, describing the feeling at the company under Musk. “Your job is on the line.”
Many engineers were tasked over the weekend with “sprints,” set periods of time for coding work to be done. Meanwhile, VPs undertook stack ranking of their departments, and compiled lists for Musk and his team of who to keep on at the company, as Insider reported. “Code review” meetings have been happening on a rolling basis with higher up engineers, the people familiar added, thought to be occurring mainly for Musk to find out which organizations inside Twitter can be cut.
As for layoffs, such action is now widely expected to begin Monday, but could begin as soon as Sunday, one of the people familiar said, as “lists” of people to keep and let go are being finalized and expected to be shared late Sunday.
The people who have been working the weekend and generally “looped in” on what’s been occurring since Musk took over and given various tasks are expected to remain employed, both of the people said. As are those Twitter leaders who have been posting positively about Musk and conversations they’ve had with him since his takeover became official, including Yoel Roth, head of safety and integrity (whom Musk followed on Sunday), Sarah Personette, chief customer officer, and Leslie Berland, Twitter’s CMO.
Some employees have reacted differently to the chaos and rapidly changing work environment. They have taken to joking on Twitter of how little they’ve been told about anything going on and shifting demands, with one posting a selfie with a small stack of printed out code.
Others have continued to tweet or retweet posts criticizing Musk and his actions so far. Scores of workers liked a tweet by a former engineer who said that leaders at Twitter “who gleefully took selfies” with Musk when he showed up to the office earlier in the week “and shared vacuous messages of excitement” need to “take a long, hard look in the mirror before facing their team on Monday.”
As for who Musk is likely looking to cut, he was asked early Sunday on Twitter what was “most messed up at Twitter right now?” He replied: “There seem to be 10 people ‘managing’ for every one person coding.” Internally, many managers have in fact been iced out already, the people familiar told Insider, being excluded from recent work being done by engineers and VPs.