| "Can you tell me if I'm going to get rich or I'm laid off?"
In the early morning of April 26, Beijing time, Twitter held a full-staff meeting. The social media company, which has been in operation for 16 years, just announced that it had agreed to Musk's acquisition agreement shortly before the meeting. Under the deal, Musk will buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, totaling about $44 billion.
It's about to change bosses, but the 7,000 Twitter employees have a lot of question marks.
What will happen to the company's future when Musk takes over? Will there be layoffs? Will pay change? Will Twitter also be moved to Texas like Tesla? Will Musk end the flexible office model that has become a highlight of Twitter?
At the meeting, employees sent questions to the current CEO, Parag Agrawal, who had few clear answers.
One of the things Agravar can tell employees is that it's still uncertain what the future holds for Billionaire Musk after his takeover deal for Twitter is complete.
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According to the New York Times, Twitter employees said that throughout the process, management did not properly talk to them about what this meant for employees. Working for the "World Town Square" tweet and only being able to learn what is happening to the company through Twitter is both bizarre and frustrating.
Employees eager to find answers asked Musk directly on Twitter, and some even went to Charles Schwab, a financial firm that manages the company's stock options, to understand the impact of the sale of the company on them.
Whether there will be layoffs and how will the salary change is one of the biggest concerns of employees, on Twitter, someone simply asked: "Just tell me, do I want to get rich or be laid off?" ”
Agravar told employees that under Musk's management, there will be no layoffs and salaries will remain largely unchanged. When the transaction is completed within three to six months, the stock options in the employee's hands are converted into cash. Employees will continue to receive bonuses under the exercise plan of their shares in the company and receive the same benefits for one year after the completion of the transaction.
Some of Twitter's employees allegedly have a high percentage of stock options in their total compensation, or even half of them. Some employees worry that Musk's privatization, the price of $54.2 per share, will cause them to miss out on the long-term value of the stock; some worry that the value of their initial stock may shrink.
Sean Edgett, Twitter's general counsel, who has tried to quell employees' financial concerns, told employees that any potential seller would most likely need to keep employees equity "as is" or offer equal compensation, such as cash rewards.
But before the company announced its acceptance of the privatization agreement, Apt also stressed that his mentoring to employees was intended to reassure people and explain how such things usually work, rather than ascertaining that there would be an outcome of one kind or another.
The issue of stock pay is also affecting hiring, with some recruiters saying they are concerned that the stock pay in the offers they send to candidates could depreciate rapidly. And if there are existing employees to resign, the recruitment problem may be further expanded, and some employees have said that they will resign if Musk takes over.
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Another issue that employees care about is the direction of the platform.
That concern stems from some of Musk's intentions expressed in regulatory documents, tweets and public appearances: Twitter would have to scrap almost all of its censorship policies and increase algorithmic transparency.
Twitter's current review policy prohibits violent threats, harassment, and spam. Twitter has been expanding its content moderation policy since 2008. At the time, the 25th employee was specifically hired to combat information problems on the platform, and now the oversight and security team has grown to hundreds of employees.
According to The New York Times, six employees said that even though their work didn't involve content moderation, they felt invested in the company's efforts to encourage healthy conversations. They feel that Musk's proposal to restore Twitter's early looseness is actually a repudiation of the company's years of efforts by the company and its employees in this area.
But while Twitter executives and employees have agreed to Musk's algorithm changes, the job will take years to complete. That could test what Musk happens to have without — patience.
This concern of employees is obviously very reasonable, after all, Musk has always raised the acquisition of Twitter to the height of civilization and freedom of expression. After the acquisition came true, Musk issued a statement on Twitter, once again emphasizing that free speech is the cornerstone of a democratic society, and said that he would make Twitter a better platform through multiple measures. Subsequently, he tweeted, "I hope that those who criticize me the most will also stay on Twitter." That's what freedom of speech means."
Under Musk's tweets, many people expressed the same concerns as employees: critics and dissidents are one thing, but violence, fake news, etc. are another, how do you grasp this boundary?
Will Trump also be unbanned? When asked by employees at the meeting, Agravar said: "Once the deal is completed, we don't know where this company will go." ”
It can only be said that the current CEO of these questions, Agravar, does not know the answer, twitter employees are not clear, Twitter users can only see the hilarity, what the "world city square" will become, and can only wait to see Musk's transformation.
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But not all employees don't welcome Musk's acquisition. Musk's fans are all over the world, and Twitter is naturally no exception, and Twitter has always been close to Musk.
In January 2020, thousands of Twitter employees gathered in Houston for a corporate summit called OneTeam. During the event, Twitter CEO jack Dorsey revealed that he had invited a surprise guest. Musk then appeared on the giant screen on the stage and waved and smiled. The crowd cheered, waving and clapping their hands, and an employee shouted, "We love you!" ”
Musk
Now that the acquisition has come true and Twitter employees are anxiously awaiting the outcome, there are still some people who are excitedly waiting for Musk to take over. In a small survey of 200 Twitter employees, 44 percent of whom said they were neutral toward Musk, 27 percent hated Musk, and the same 27 percent said they loved him.
Neutral people may only need to care about the direction of work and the company, but there is no peace between the employees who hate Musk and love Musk.
Some employees said bluntly: "I feel like I'm going to throw up... I really don't want to work for Musk. Another employee tweeted: "You need a glass of spirits." One employee complained about Musk supporters within the company: "Those 'Elon boys' are all brain-dead ventilators, you can see a lot on Twitter, I can't wait for Musk to cut half of us." 」 ”
According to internal information obtained by The New York Times, some employees complained that some colleagues were too "left-leaning", making it impossible for employees who supported Musk's acquisition plan to speak out and feel uncomfortable.
Now, at Twitter's all-hands meeting, there is tremendous pressure in the discussion around Musk, which is in stark contrast to the warm welcome Musk received in 2020.
At that event, although some employees were skeptical of Musk, many of them listened carefully in the face of some of the suggestions made by Musk on the screen. At the time, Musk mentioned that the company should do more to eliminate robots and return the platform to real humans.
Jack Dorsey jokingly asked Musk, "By the way, do you want to manage Twitter?" ”
On that day two years ago, Twitter employees who had gathered together laughed in the face of the problem. Musk did not answer immediately.