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Hours after new “Chief Twit” Elon Musk issued an “extremely hard core” ultimatum to work hard or get out, thousands of Twitter employees have beelined for the exits, with the social media company disabling badge access and shuttering its brick-and-mortar spaces for at least the next 72 hours, according to Thursday night reports.
After Musk sent a late-night internal email suggesting Twitter’s employees prepare to “long hours at hard intensity” in order to build “Twitter 2.0,” as much as three-quarters of the remaining workforce tendered their resignations, according to Kylie Robison, a Fortune journalist. The exact number of staffers who survived Musk’s cull earlier this month—and chose not to quit in the intervening days—is unclear, but estimates hovered around 3,700 workers just prior to the ultimatum.
On Thursday night, according to the managing editor of Platformer, Twitter “alerted employees that effective immediately, all office buildings are temporarily closed and badge access is suspended.” No elaboration on a motive was publicly issued, according to the tech blog’s Zoë Schiffer, but she went on to tweet that sources had told her new owner Elon Musk and his team “are terrified employees are going to sabotage the company.”