Twitter layoffs: Executive found himself locked out of accounts at 1 a.m.

(Image credit: LinkedIn)

Twitter announced mass layoffs just days after Elon Musk took over the social network. Employees reported abruptly losing access to work accounts. Even senior staff members learnt this way that they were being let go.

Amir Shevat, the former head of product of Twitter's developer platform, told Insider that on November 4, most of his team members were fired, that too late at night.

"Throughout about three to four hours, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., I saw most of my entire team get fired," he told the website.

One of Shevat's engineers told him his computer stopped working. Around 1 a.m., the boss himself checked his phone and found he no longer had access to emails and Slack.

Later on, he was told on his personal mail that he was terminated. The week after being laid off, he waited for details of his severance package but didn't receive them.

He said he even went to the Human Resources and legal departments talk about the layoffs.

"There wasn't a single person as a point of contact that we could talk to," he told Insider.

Shevat has taken Twitter to court over his termination. His lawyer, Lisa Bloom, is representing several others employees laid off by Twitter.

Earlier this month, Shevat wrote an opinion piece for the website TechCrunch, tracing the highs and lows of Twitter's Developer Platform.

"When developers start building on a platform, they’re making a bet that it will continue to exist with a high degree of stability," Shevet wrote. "It’s a lot of work to build on a platform."

Twitter has sacked roughly 50 percent of its workforce of 7,500.  Its new owner Elon Musk is fundamentally changing its character-- from easing content moderation to the introducing a new verification method.