A Pregnant Twitter Employee Says Elon Musk Locked Her Out & Mass Layoffs Are Hitting Hard
"8 months pregnant and have a 9-month-old."
Elon Musk is playing an unpopular CEO card by laying off thousands of Twitter employees right before the holiday season, and not even the pregnant workers are being spared.
Musk hasn't even owned Twitter for two weeks, and he's also begun mass layoffs to cut the platform's workforce in half, reported The New York Times. The layoffs are expected to hit about 3,700 people across Twitter's international offices.
Employees were sent a companywide email, which was obtained by The New York Times, notifying them to expect layoffs, and were told not to come into work on Friday as the firing process began.
"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce," said the email. "We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward."
The email was sent from a generic email address and was signed off with "Twitter."
A few pregnant Twitter employees were reportedly let go in the mass layoff, including one who piped up about it on the platform.
Rachel Bonn, a now-former member of Twitter's product marketing team, tweeted: "last Thursday in the SF office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter."
"8 months pregnant and have a 9-month-old. Just got cut off from laptop access," continued her tweet, followed by the hashtag "#LoveWhereYouWorked."
The Twitter offices remained closed on Friday as the company laid off its workforce and cut their access to internal systems, reported Reuters.
Musk had hinted at mass layoffs since well before he actually took over the company, and he also fired the CEO and other execs on his first day as boss.
He didn't have much to say about the outgoing staff on Friday, although he did complain about a "massive drop in revenue" on "activist groups," without mentioning the waves he's made since taking over.
"Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America," continued his tweet.
Many ex-employees have been sharing their stories on Twitter. A lot of them say they were in charge of moderating content on the platform.
High-profile attorney Lisa Bloom says she is in contact with many who were laid off, and that she's looking at a class-action lawsuit because they should have been given more warning.
"Mr. Musk, the storm is coming," she tweeted.