Elon Musk Done with Twitter Layoffs, Starts Hiring New Engineers

Elon Musk Done with Twitter Layoffs, Starts Hiring New Engineers

Published: November 23, 2022

During an all-hands meeting on Monday, Elon Musk informed the remainder of his employees that the waves of layoffs are done, and that Twitter is ready to start hiring again, according to two people present at the meeting.

“In terms of critical hires, I would say people who are great at writing software are the highest priority,” Musk said during the meeting. Twitter recruiters are already reaching out to engineers, asking them to join “Twitter 2.0 — an Elon company.”

He even called on anyone who’s left the company and can write software to meet with him.

The meeting, which was held at the company headquarters in San Francisco, was the second meeting of its kind since Musk took over. The purpose was for him to reassure his remaining workforce that the layoffs have come to an end, and encouraged them to refer new hires.

The last time Musk gathered all of his employees for a briefing, he told them that the social media giant might be facing bankruptcy and warned them of “extremely hardcore” work expectations.

One employee noted that Musk’s comments on Monday were met with “some relief,” which isn’t surprising given his dire warnings from the previous all-hands meeting. That goes double given the fact he just finished laying off even more people from the Twitter sales department the same day, effectively culling almost all of its senior leadership.

In total, Twitter has lost upwards of 5,000 employees since Musk took over at the end of October due to layoffs and resignations. Prior to Musk’s ownership, there were about 7,500 people at the company. Now there are around 2,300. His “extremely hardcore” cultural reset has cost him more than 1,000 employees in itself.

Now that the waves of layoffs are finished, at least for the time being, Twitter is ready to start hiring again, although no specific job listings have been posted yet.

In addition to addressing the staffing situation at the company, Musk reassured his employees that Twitter won’t be moving headquarters to Texas, as that would “play into the idea that Twitter has gone from being left-wing to right-wing, which is not the case.”

“This is not a right-wing takeover of Twitter. It is a moderate-wing takeover of Twitter,” Musk added.

However, he did suggest Twitter might become “dual-headquartered” in California and Texas.

It remains to be seen whether Musk will be able to replenish 50% of engineering staff that is now gone. Perhaps his offering of stock grants as part of future compensation plans akin to what SpaceX employees have will attract the talent he now desperately needs.

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