Elon Musk is looking for help from any employees left at Twitter who may be able to do technical work, even asking people to fly to San Francisco in order to meet with him.
In a set of emails sent around midnight PT on Friday, Musk asked to meet with "anyone who actually writes software" on Friday afternoon. He told people to line up on the 10th floor of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, where he's been working since taking over the company about three weeks ago, at 2 p.m. PT. Employees were asked to first send Musk a "bullet point summary" by email of their code for the past six months, along with "up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code."
His notes came after a mass resignation on Thursday saw hundreds of Twitter employees leave in response to an ultimatum Musk gave earlier in the week. The billionaire told workers to click a link to accept working for his "extremely hardcore" version of "Twitter 2.0" or resign. More than half of the people remaining at the company since a mass layoff earlier this month, or about 2,000 employees, took the latter option of resigning.
In a follow-up email sent overnight, Musk directed anyone planning to work from home to email him the same code information and screenshots. "I will try to speak with you via video," he said.
Then Musk requested any employees who may be outside San Francisco to "fly to SF to be present in person" for meetings with him. Managers at Twitter told remaining employees who needed to fly in to meet with Musk they could expense the cost.
The emails underline the degree to which Twitter's ranks have been hollowed out by the combination of Musk's layoffs and "so many people calling his bluff," as one former engineer put it.
Some parts of the company no longer have any employees, three people told Insider. The finance and accounting departments were hit hard by Thursday's resignations, with all employees working in payroll, US tax, and its financial-reporting department now gone, as Insider reported. Twitter's communications department is also effectively shut down and its information-security department — workers responsible for protecting user data — is now "basically no one," a former worker said.
Below are complete copies of Musk's Friday emails to Twitter staff:
Email one
Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor at 2 pm today.
Before doing so, please email a bullet point summary of what your code commands have achieved in the past ~6 months, along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code.
Thanks,
Elon
Email two
If you're working remotely, please email the request below nonetheless and I will try to speak you via video. Only those who cannot physically get to Twitter HQ or have a family emergency are excused.
These will be short, technical interviews that allow me to better understand the Twitter tech stack.
Thanks,
Elon
Email three
If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person. I will be at Twitter HQ until midnight and then back again tomorrow morning.
Are you a Twitter employee or someone else with insight to share? Contact Kali Hays at khays@insider.com, on secure messaging app Signal at 949-280-0267, or through Twitter DM at @hayskali. Reach out using a non-work device.
