According to insiders, the headcount at Twitter is “much lower” than the 1,500 employees CEO Elon Musk had reported in a recent interview with BBC News. When contract workers are excluded, the number of permanent staff remaining is closer to 1,000, which would represent a reduction of almost 90% since Musk took over earlier this year.
A former employee claimed that “performance reviews are constant” and that those who remain are struggling to meet changing demands. Weekly employee reviews have resulted in frequent firings with little or no explanation given.
Musk had previously stated that Twitter needed to cut costs immediately, and this could explain the recent staff reductions. In 2011, Twitter had around 400 employees, but it now has more than double the daily active users, which stands at nearly 238 million users. Musk has admitted that he grew the company too quickly and that Twitter could not have survived as a public company.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has criticised Musk’s leadership and has spoken out about the direction of Twitter since the takeover. Musk and Twitter have not commented on the situation.
