Monday brought new evidence that the company will never be the same. Musk has talked about putting a paywall on the site. The company is trying to get back some of the employees who were laid off just hours ago.
There is a company that still hasn't heard anything official from Musk via email or a companywide meeting. Many employees didn't know who their managers were after the loss of their colleagues.
I spoke to many current and former employees who felt that the future of their company was in danger because of Musk's erratic leadership and his constant use of bad taste on his social media accounts.
Let's discuss more about how the company messed up its layoff process, what happened inside, and what the paywall might look like.
Many of the people involved in planning the layoffs lost their jobs. While the process varied by team, some managers were asked to submit to Musk's team two sentences about all of their direct reports: one sentence explaining what the employee did, and one sentence justifying their continued employment atTwitter
One person told me that they wanted the list to be a good sentence.
A former employee told me that managers jockeyed with their peers in an effort to preserve employment for pregnant women, employees with cancer, and workers on visas.
Several teams were wiped out completely. The company went way too far. Within hours of the layoffs, some managers were told to ask laid-off employees if they wanted to return to work.
There is an app called Blind where employees of different companies can chat with their coworkers. Within a day, it was posted in public channels.
I wanted to let everyone know that we have the chance to ask people who were left off if they'll come back. A manager told employees that they needed to put together names and rationales by 4PM on Sunday. If any of you have been in touch with people who might come back and help us, please let me know before 4.
The manager said that they might use some assistance from the two mobile operating systems. Engineers and designers have been reaching out to the company in an attempt to get them back.
Some employees are worried that if the company can't get them to come back, they'll be laid off. Businesses with more than 100 full-time employees are required to give 60 days' notice if they lay off more than 33 percent of their staff. The notice promised to pay people for the next 60 days and give them a month of separation.
Workers are worried that if they refuse to return, they will be fired and lose their pay.
If they are recalled, some workers have begun to consult with their lawyers. Several aspects of the organization have been broken after the debacle of Musk's layoffs process.
Remaining managers are bracing themselves for a bigger workload than before. A person I spoke with said that a technical manager should spend at least half their time writing code and at least 20 individual contributors. Others have been given more reports.
One employee told me that there were two groups at the company, those working on projects that Musk has been deeply involved in, and the rest.
The two teams that are on his pet projects are doing 20 hours a day. Most of the company is just sitting. There is no chain of command, no priorities, no organization chart, and no idea who your manager is.
Most of the company is just sitting.
Employees looked to strange sources to learn what they are supposed to do. After a number of celebrities and high-profile accounts began to impersonate him, Musk announced a new policy of permanently banning anyone who impersonates someone else. I was told that employees began discussing how to implement Musk's order after learning about it.
According to a former employee, the health team was told to listen to the David Sacks show for insights into why they had just lost half their colleagues. Sacks, a venture capitalist who has been helping to manage the Musk transition, is one of the co- hosts of the "All-In" show.
A vice president told employees that the most recent podcasts covers the current layoffs happening across tech and gives some insight into why this is happening. It is important to listen in order to understand the macro environment.
The health benefits of most employees became a question mark. The open-enrollment period was supposed to start today, but there was no information in the human-resources system. Several questions about benefits were not answered by management.
I was told at least some teams had begun to hold meetings in which employees were told who their managers are, what their organization charts look like, and what their priorities will be.
Do Musk and his team have any idea what they're doing?
Since the end of the second quarter, the company has added 15 million daily users and is telling advertisers that it is thriving.
The new version of the blue subscription that will allow anyone to get a verification badges has been a disaster.
The new version of the app was released on Saturday with release notes that said it was now available. The copy written by Calacanis was derided for its resemblance to a scam. The problem is that Blue wasn't available, so those who did subscribe got access to the current version.
Musk and Sacks were offered the idea of asking business accounts to pay for extras.
The new Blue may face bigger problems. Platformer has learned that the current version only had 100,000 active subscribers. The new version will be more expensive and it's not clear if it's worth anything to most regular users. The company may not be able to convince enough people to subscribe.
The idea of asking business accounts to pay for extra features was brought up by employees of the company. They were dismissed because they wanted to offer wide-scale verification first.
The new Blue feature that Musk added at the last minute has been warned about by other employees. According to estimates, it will cost the company about $6 in ad revenue per user in the US. If the ad-light plan is enacted, it will likely lose money on Blue.
One former employee who worked on the plans said that the business was not up to par.
Musk and Esther Crawford, a director of product management at the company, exchanged regular emails during the chaotic launch of Blue. Musk told workers that he was the one who made the decision.
If the ad-light plan is enacted, it will likely cause a loss for the company.
The message said that any detail of the social networking site must be clear.
The biggest change of all is that most or all users will have to pay to use the service.
A person familiar with the matter says that Musk and Sacks have discussed the idea recently. A plan that allows everyone to use the service for a limited amount of time each month but requires a subscription would be a good one.
It's not known how serious Musk and Sacks are about the paywall. The Blue team is focused on the launch of expanded verification.
It is clear that Musk and his brain trust will have to do something to increase revenue because of the huge debt burden and the recent pause in spending by major advertisers. It seems like they will never be the same.
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