Twitter employees sceptical about their future under Elon Musk

Twitter employees are sceptical about their future after Elon Musk addressed them this week, saying they are doing their best to stay focused on work.

The future of Twitter hangs in the balance and employees’ reaction after the virtual meeting with Musk was “mostly negative,” reports The Verge.

Musk told Twitter employees that he particularly wants to be involved in the product and expects the team to listen to his input on new features.

He said he’s very involved at Tesla, and he would adopt a similar leadership style at Twitter which he is buying for $44 billion (the deal is on hold till Musk is sure about the actual number of bots on Twitter).

“Right now, costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation,” he told them.

Employees said that it was “jarring to hear someone speak with so much confidence about a company that at best Musk is only beginning to understand”.

As employees wondered what the acquisition will mean for them, Musk vaguely spoke about the future of civilisation.

“I want Twitter to contribute to a better, long-lasting civilisation where we better understand the nature of reality,” he told them.

Musk, however, said he does want to “drive the product in a particular direction” and lead improvement on the platform’s software, product, and design.

“I don’t mind doing other things related to operating a company, but there are chores. I really just want to make sure that the product evolves rapidly and in a good way. I don’t really care what the title is, but obviously, people do need to listen to me,” he noted.

He also clarified that he strongly prefers to work in person and would confirm with managers that remote employees were contributing positively to the company.