After Elon Musk gave his staff an ultimatum yesterday, more people than he may have wanted apparently have walked out of the door.

Yesterday, Musk wrote an email to his employees telling them that they should be prepared to work their behinds off and accept that, going forward, Twitter will be an engineering-focused company (read: not political). They were given the option to tick a box that said they agreed, or they could clear their desk and collect three months of severance pay.

It was certainly a strange thing for a large tech company to do, but not so strange when you consider that Musk has been dealing with something of a mutiny. But as the deadline approached, Musk got a bit of a shock. That is, huge swaths of staff decided they did not want to work for the new “hardcore” Twitter 2.0.

The great reset backfired as reportedly “hundreds” of Twitter staff walked out. This is a company that has already laid off thousands of employees in a downsizing initiative.

According to The Verge, which spoke to employees at Twitter, many of its best engineers have left, something that could seriously damage the company’s ability to exist. Many took to Twitter’s internal Slack group and said things such as, “My watch ends with Twitter 1.0. I do not wish to be part of Twitter 2.0.”

“It feels like all the people who made this place incredible are leaving,” another leaver told The Verge. “It will be extremely hard for Twitter to recover from here, no matter how hardcore the people who remain try to be.”

As Musk watched the exodus, may have been quite worried, reportedly then gathering his executives near him to address the issue of critical staff leaving the company. “And just like that, after 12 years, I have left Twitter,” one of those longtime staffers tweeted. “I have nothing but love for all my fellow tweeps, past and present. A thousand faces and a thousand scenes are flashing through my mind right now — I love you Twitter, and I’ll forever bleed blue.”

In an effort to make life at Twitter look more enticing, Musk then sent a message to employees telling them he was reversing the decision about remote work. Musk had earlier said that staff should work 40 hours in the office. “Regarding remote work, all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution,” Musk told staff today.

He followed that email up with a warning. “Any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company,” he said.

As for why so many people are leaving, that isn’t all that clear. Some people may not like his unyielding stance on working hard to build Twitter 2.0, but it’s more likely that this turbulence is more political or tribal than anything. Staff are concerned about Musk’s comments on free speech, and no doubt have been convinced that it’s not a good thing. They may also not have agreed with what was obviously an excessive ultimatum.

Either way, the chaos can only be described as 21st century strange.

Photo: Jared Smith/Flickr