Elon Musk Asked X Employees To Justify Their Jobs. Then Fired 6,000: Report

Tech billionaire Elon Musk made a lot of noise when he bought Twitter (now X) for $44 billion in 2022. The social media platform has seen quite a few changes since then. 

Now, as per a report by The Telegraph, Elon Musk has fired 6,000 (80 per cent) of the staff. 

The report added that half of the workers were fired within months of the acquisition. It also revealed that Mr Musk had sent his cousin James Musk, and Steve Davis to talk to the employees and justify their roles in the company. People were also asked to share their thoughts on the other employees in the team.

Reportedly, the major lay-offs happened in the diversity and inclusion teams and product development and design. 

The report added, “It was clearly pretty bloated. You had to right-size the organisation. However, Musk went further than anyone predicted. When he cuts a team, he cuts the whole team, and that creates significant chaos."

A source told The Telegraph, “Musk had been hoping to rebuild the business with a challenger mindset and a clean slate. But lopping off whole divisions without a clear strategy left too many gaps to plug, and talent had plenty of opportunities at fast-growing start-ups like OpenAI rather than struggling Twitter.”

Meanwhile, in his first address after taking over, Elon Musk had warned his employees that “bankruptcy was a possibility if it doesn't start generating more cash, according to people familiar with the matter.”

He has also asked people employees to brace for 80-hour work weeks, fewer office perks like free food and less work-from-home flexibility.