No free food, 80-hour weeks: Elon Musk tells Twitter staff in first meeting

Elon Musk announced the $8 a month fee for Twitter Blue to mixed reactions.

Elon Musk hosted an all-hands meeting with staff at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Thursday – his first since taking control of the social media giant about two weeks ago.

Since taking control of Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Musk has dissolved top leadership – ousting CEO Parag Agrawal – laid off about 3,700 employees, and asked the remaining team members to return to office full time, overturning Twitter’s permanent work-from-home policy that was instituted about two years ago during the pandemic.

The tech billionaire and new Twitter owner fielded questions from Twitter employees during the meeting on Thursday, which took place just hours after he sent a company-wide email warning staff of tough times ahead and asked them to put in 40 hours in office.

He reiterated his warning of tough times ahead in the meeting, telling employees to brace for 80-hour weeks. Musk also told staff to expect fewer perks like free food going forward, as per Bloomberg.

According to a Business Insider report, most questions during the meeting centred around the recent layoffs. However, one employee asked Musk why he ended remote work.

Elon Musk reportedly looked “visibly annoyed” at the question and “shut her down,” saying that was just the way the company would operate going forward, a person who was present at the meeting was quoted as saying by Business Insider.

One Twitter employee asked why Elon Musk ended working from home, and he looked "visibly annoyed," and "just shut her down" saying that's the way the company will operate going forward, according to a person who was at last-minute all-hands. https://t.co/zEf5uSK52I

— Sam Tabahriti (@samtabahriti) November 10, 2022

"I don't know how to answer that, but I can tell you it's about being hardcore," Musk said. "A small amount of exceptional people who are highly motivated can do better than a smaller group of high achievers with moderate motivations. If you can't perform hardcore, then Twitter is not for you."

Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter descended ever deeper into chaos on Thursday as key security executives resigned from the platform, drawing a sharp warning from US regulators.

In the most extraordinary exit, US media reported that Yoel Roth, the site's head of trust and safety stepped down just a day after staunchly defending Musk's content moderation policy to advertisers.

Meanwhile, Musk’s decision to end remote work was not wholly unexpected, given that he has issued similar diktats at Tesla and SpaceX in the past.

(With inputs from AFP)