By Amid a tumultuous period of mass layoffs and public spats since Elon Musk took over Twitter, he is now reportedly asking employees to either get on board with the social-media company’s new culture or walk away.
Musk penned a note to employees overnight asking them to confirm whether they want to push toward his new vision for Twitter, which will require “working long hours at high intensity,” or whether they instead wish to exit the company with three months’ worth of severance pay.
Employees have until Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern to indicate that they want to go along with the new Twitter, or else they will receive the severance pay, according to the memo, which was reported on by The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and other outlets that viewed it.
Twitter, which is said to have disbanded most of its press team, didn’t immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.
Musk, who also serves as the chief executive of Tesla Inc., moved to slash about half of Twitter’s workforce shortly after taking over the company, and his recent note gave a clear sense of where his priorities lie.
“Twitter will…be much more engineering-driven,” he said. “Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway.”
Additionally, “[o]nly exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”
Musk’s arrival at Twitter has meant a culture shock for both employees at the company and users of the service. He has publicly criticized aspects of the platform, clamped down on remote work, and pushed for a quick rollout of a new paid verification system that the company then temporarily walked back. His belief that verification symbols on Twitter should go to those who pay for the company’s Twitter Blue service ushered in a rush of parody accounts mimicking real businesses and figures.
