Over 6,000 Twitter employees – around 80% of the company’s workforce – have either quit or been laid off since billionaire Elon Musk bought the company, CNBC reported on Friday, citing data from the platform’s internal records.
According to the documents, Twitter’s full-time headcount is down to approximately 1,300 active employees, from a staff of roughly 7,500 prior to the buyout. Fewer than 550 of those still working are full-time engineers. The trust and safety department, which is responsible for policy recommendations, design, and product changes, has shrunk to fewer than 20 full-time workers.
Around 1,400 employees are still being paid but are no longer expected to fulfill their responsibilities at the company. Many of them resigned when Musk demanded that they commit to his new vision of “hardcore” Twitter 2.0, which included longer hours and an end to remote work.
Musk took over the company in late October and almost immediately started laying off staff, saying at the time that it was necessary in order to avoid financial ruin for the platform. His initial plan, however, was to only let around 50% of the staff go.
A former Twitter engineer who asked to remain unnamed told CNBC that the loss of workers is likely to make it harder for the company to maintain service reliably while building new features. He said that the company’s code base is too large and varied, and it will be difficult for the remaining engineers to keep different parts of Twitter in working order, as they require knowledge of different platforms and programming languages.
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