Twitter lays off employees by mistake, calls them back

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, almost half the company were laid off and now the company is reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return.

As per the people familiar with the move, few of the employees were laid off by mistake and are asked to return. Others were let go before management realised that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Musk envisions, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

Around 3,700 people were laid off this week through email as a way to trim costs following Musk’s acquisition, which closed in late October. Many employees learned they lost their job after their access to company-wide systems, like email and Slack, were suddenly suspended. The requests for employees to return demonstrate how rushed and chaotic the process was.

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted on Friday.

Twitter has close to 3,700 employees remaining, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk is pushing those who remain at the company to move quickly in shipping new features, and in some cases, employees have even slept at the office to meet new deadlines.

Over the weekend, Twitter rolled out a new Twitter Blue subscription plan, offering a verification check mark for any user who pays $8 a month. The company also said it will soon be launching other features, including half the ads, the ability to post longer videos and get priority ranking in replies, mentions and searches.