Panicked Elon Musk Reportedly Begging Engineers Not to Leave

The free fall of Musk'sTwitter operations continues.

According to The Washington Post, the billionaire CEO sent an email to staff telling them that they needed to be extremely hardcore and work long hours at the office, or they would be fired.

Employees had until 5 pm on Thursday to decide if they were going to stay or go. There is a problem for Musk. According to Gergely Orosz, who has had a close ear to the inner turmoil of the micro-blogging site, "developers hit 'yes' far less than expected."

Orosz says that Musk is having meetings with top engineers to convince them to stay after many employees called his bluff.

Mass layoffs have cut the workforce in half. Employees did not know that their email and work computers had been revoked.

Some employees were asked to return to the company after Musk's crew realized it had fired people it needed.

According to Orosz, the engineering workforce may have been cut in three weeks.

Musk has been banging the war drums in an effort to get rid of those who aren't willing to abide by his strict rules and those who were willing to stand up to him.

Developers are not embracing that type of tyranny.

Orosz thought that playing hardball did not work. It doesn't.

Orosz was told by a source that 10 of the 50 people in the larger group are staying. Some people who plan to quit met with Elon.

Developers are running for the hills and are likely to find better work conditions elsewhere.

Orosz argued that, unlike rocket scientists, who have few options to work at, developers with the experience of buildingTwitter only have better options than the conditions he outlines.

Musk has made fun of engineers and implied that they were leading him on.

The people who spoke out against him were dismissed.

Many developers have taken up Musk's offer of three months of severance and leave because of his hostile leadership.

Orosz said he meant it when he called the ultimatum the first positive thing about the saga. Everyone who had enough of the BS and wasn't on a visa was able to quit.

Musk said he was overwhelmed in the interview after the power went out.