As Musk stops WFH, Twitter staff say they’re not obliged to come to office

Days after sacking employees, Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk has told existing staff to prepare for “difficult times ahead” and that the company is mulling to end work from home permanently.

Addressing employees in his first ever official email as Twitter chief, Musk spoke how the economic crisis in the US will affect the company and asked them to work for 40 hours a week, adding that remote work would only be allowed on a case-by-case basis.

Also read: Twitter scraps ‘Official’ label soon after launch; Elon Musk says ‘I just killed it’

“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Bloomberg quoted Musk as saying in the letter.

He told employees that their top priority over the next few days will be “finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spams.”

Musk earlier had removed “days of rest” – holidays meant for employees to rest and recharge – from Twitter’s calendar.

Musk’s decision the end work from home has not gone down well among employees with many quitting their jobs and others venting their ire on social media.

“Everyone should know that our CISO, Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Compliance Officer all resigned last night. This news will be buried in the return-to-office drama. I believe that is intentional,” a senior member of Twitter’s legal team was quoted posting on Twitter’s Slack messaging system, as per Zoe Schiffer, managing editor of Platformer.

The Twitter employee reportedly said that colleagues were not legally bound to return to office as the new terms were contrary to what their contracts said.

“Twitter is a remote-first workplace, and has operated as such for years. It is a fundamental change to our employment contracts to require a 40hr a week-in-office requirement. I do not, personally, believe that Twitter employees have an obligation to return to office,” Schiffer quoted the employee as saying.

Also read: Twitter Blue set for India rollout in less than a month, says Elon Musk

“I also remind all Tweeps (at least in the US) that we have an unlimited PTO policy. All Tweeps are able to take PTO. Perhaps today is a good day to take some rest and recharge,” the employee said.

In a scathing string of statements, the senior employee also accused Musk of making Twitter employees pay for his own decisions and has is only concerned about monetizing the platform.

“Over the last 2 weeks, Elon has shown that he cares only about recouping the losses he’s incurring as a result of failing to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter. He chose to enter the agreement! All of us are being put through this as a result of his choices,” the employee said.

“I do not believe he cares about the human rights activists, the dissidents, our users in un-monetizable regions, and all the other users who have made Twitter a global town square.”

Musk on Thursday hinted at the platform going bankrupt even as two top executives – Yoel Roth and Robin Wheeler – quit their jobs.

Also read: Takeover by Elon Musk: Twitter starts laying off staff in India; to seal offices

Earlier in the day Twitter’s Chief Security Officer Lea Kissner said he has put in her papers. Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned.