New boss: And there was chaos: Twitter employees report on a memorable day one under Elon Musk

It started with a joke, but then it quickly got serious.

New boss: And there was chaos: Twitter employees report on a memorable day one under Elon Musk

It started with a joke, but then it quickly got serious. With a sink in hand, Elon Musk entered the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday. "Let that sink in," the billionaire quipped, which can be translated as "let that sink in" or "let the sink in." With the joke, Musk wanted to make it clear that after a long back and forth he would actually take over the powerful short message service.

It would have been more fitting, however, if Musk had brought an ax with him. Because even before the final completion of the $ 44 billion deal was announced on Friday, Musk had already fired the top management of the group. According to media reports, company boss Parag Agrawal was fired, as were previous CFO Ned Segal and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde. Agrawal and Segal were immediately escorted out of the building, almost like an arrest. "The bird is free," Musk tweeted, who has self-titled "Chief Twit."

Yesterday, Friday, officially day one under the new boss Elon Musk, must have felt like something between a hostile takeover and a raid for parts of the Twitter workforce. At least that's how the reports of numerous employees in the US media read. For her, the first day at work under Musk was characterized by chaos, uncertainty and helplessness. You ask yourself: After the dismissal of top management, will there also be a broad cut in the workforce, as Musk previously publicly announced? What does the man want anyway and what's next?

According to "Business Insider", employees of product and development teams were instructed on Thursday evening to prepare for meetings with Musk on Friday. They should also bring programming code with them. In addition, Tesla developers are said to have turned up at the company's headquarters in San Francisco to question individual Twitter programmers about technical aspects of their work.

The meetings with Musk personally on Friday were repeatedly postponed and finally canceled. Some employees are said to have actually been asked to print out pages of software code so that Musk and his inner circle can look at them behind closed doors. Musk has expressed concerns in the past that the Twitter algorithm distorts public discussion. In addition, he had criticized the high number of spam bots and used them – ultimately in vain – as a reason to let the Twitter takeover burst.

Musk himself is said to have worked on Friday at the company's headquarters in San Francisco with his personal lawyer Alex Spiro and a team he brought with him on a separate floor to take over the company's business. Even the staff cafeteria would have avoided the Musk people, preferring to have their food brought to them, report anonymous Twitter employees.

The Twitter workforce waited in vain throughout Friday for an appointment or at least an email to pop up in the calendar in which the new boss turned to his employees. "It's just quiet," an employee told Business Insider. And another says: "It's scary because he's so unpredictable."

Musk made a couple of brief tweets on Friday. He described the pictures of two allegedly fired employees, who could be seen with cardboard in their hands in front of the Twitter building, as "comedy". Apparently they really weren't real employees. Musk has openly said in the past that he is planning significant staff cuts. There is speculation among employees that there could be layoffs before November 1st when employee stock options expire. As announced, Musk suspended trading in Twitter shares on Friday.

Eagerly awaited is the extent to which Musk will intervene in the content of the discourse on Twitter and whether – as announced – he will promptly lift the ban on Donald Trump and other banned people. Musk tweeted on Friday that he would set up a content moderation board that would have "a wide range of opinions". "No major substantive decisions will be made or accounts re-established prior to the convening of this body."

Sources: Business Insider / NY Times / Axios

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