Since multibillionaire Elon Musk (51) took over the short message service Twitter, nothing is the same as before. Musk cleans up – as much as he can. After the Tesla boss had already thrown out much of the boardroom floor, the next bang followed on Friday: Musk fired thousands of his employees. According to media reports, Musk would have fired 3,700 of the approximately 7,500 Twitter employees.
Swiss journalist Michaël Jarjour (38) is also affected by the mass layoffs. alias @derjarjour, as the “Handelzeitung” reports. The media manager worked for the platform for almost two years as a Senior Partner Manager. Literally overnight, Jarjour found out it had been tweeted for him. “I woke up in the middle of the night, got up to get more water, looked at my phone and realized I had been fired,” tweeted Jarjour, who also worked for NZZ and SRF.
Some emails ended up in spam folders
His visibly emotional tweet shows that the termination is a heavy blow for the journalist. He is currently reading the tweet’s farewell threads and is “full of love for these people”. “What a great team, I literally have tears in my eyes,” says Jarjour, who has since changed his name to “Michael is not a Twit anymore” (as much as: Michael is no longer on Twitter).
As the paper continued to write, Jarjour had waited nervously for such an email the night before—even checked the spam folder. “Laughing: I even checked the spam for this email,” he tweeted the night before. The company even advised its employees to do so.
Despite being fired out of the blue, the Swiss remains loyal to his ex-employer. After US MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed her profile was down and she criticized Musk, he took it out on her: “Sorry, but spreading conspiracy theories is stupid,” Jarjour tweeted under her post. Rather, this flaw is the result of a team sleeping in the office and working around the clock under the threat of being fired.
To avoid protests: offices remained closed on Friday
The offices were closed on Friday to rule out protests by layoffs. In addition, all access cards have been deactivated, as stated in an e-mail to employees. “If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please go home.” The measure is intended to ensure the security of employees as well as Twitter systems and user data.
Twitter probably wanted to prevent an incident like five years ago. In November 2017, on his last working day, an employee deactivated the Twitter account of then-US President Donald Trump (76). It took about ten minutes for the account to be back online.
The circular also said the job cuts were “unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s future success”. For Twitter employees, the circular was the first official announcement since Musk finalized the $44 billion purchase last Thursday, as reported by the Washington Post, among others.
Musk is already facing a class action lawsuit
A general meeting with Musk was originally announced for Friday. This was canceled — as was a later date before it, it said, citing employees.
Musk’s mass layoffs are not without consequences for the SpaceX boss. A class action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco on behalf of several employees. The accusation: Twitter allegedly violated California’s labor law with poor communication about the layoffs.
It is still unclear how it will go on for the Swiss Michaël Jarjour. Jarjour has rejected an interview request from the “Handelszeitung” because of the settlement negotiations. (dzc/SDA)