Twitter employees had Monday off for their monthly “day of rest,” which the social media company provides. This month, however, the “day of rest” was not very restful, as some employees noted that Elon Musk’s recent moves within the company were on their minds. Some have even noted that the vibe among Twitter staff has been “super stressed.”
Elon Musk had taken a 9.2% stake on Twitter, becoming the company’s single largest shareholder. Following this, it was announced that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would be joining Twitter’s Board of Directors. Twitter seemed to be confident that Musk would accept a seat on its Board, so much so that the social media company listed the Tesla CEO as a Board Member on its investor relations website.
On late Sunday, however, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Musk had declined his Board appointment. Interestingly enough, being one of Twitter’s Board members would have meant that Musk would not be able to purchase more than 14.9% of Twitter’s stock. By declining his seat, Musk would now be free to acquire more of the company.
As per a Bloomberg report, these decisions by Elon Musk have caused some whiplash among Twitter staff. Individuals familiar with the social media company’s operations informed the news outlet that the vibe among workers at Twitter has become “super stressed,” with employees “working together to help each other get through the week.” One Twitter employee reportedly stated that Musk was “just getting started, which is unfortunate,” while others stated that the situation had become a “sh*t-show.”
Rumman Chowdhury, a director on Twitter’s AI research team, shared her thoughts on the matter in a series of posts on the social media platform. According to Chowdhury, Musk’s effect on the company bothered her greatly, especially as the CEO’s supporters started posting criticisms of Twitter employees. She also noted that Twitter had a “beautiful culture of constructive criticism” that was disrupted by Musk and his supporters’ recent sentiments.
“This is going to sound funny but Musk’s immediate chilling effect was something that bothered me significantly. Twitter has a beautiful culture of hilarious constructive criticism, and I saw that go silent because of his minions attacking employees,” Chowdhury said. In a later response to a post asking if she feared a hostile takeover from the Tesla CEO, Chowdhury noted that “It would be interesting to see how he’d run a company with no employees.”
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, stated that by declining a seat on Twitter’s Board, Musk had become even more of a wild card. “This decision by Elon does not bode well for Twitter. Twitter thought having Trump on the platform was tough. Elon Musk is going to be a corporate nightmare,” Navarra said.
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