Elon Musk Defends Twitter Mass Layoffs, Says Axed Employees Received Three-Month Payment

Who is Elon Musk?

Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African American business magnate and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla Inc.; co-chairman of OpenAI; chairman of SolarCity; cofounder of Zip2; and founder of Neuralink. In December 2016 he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People. As of November 2017 he has an estimated net worth of $20.4 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 53rd richest person in the world.

What did he say about the layoffs?

A series of reports published over the past week have put pressure on the social media company to respond to rumours that it is struggling to generate revenue. Mr Musk said: Twitter is expected to lose at least $100m this quarter. Do you think they'll ever make money? Seriously doubt it.

What do the laid-off employees say?

The former employees of Twitter have a different story to tell. They say they found out they were being laid off through a company-wide email and that they had been given the rest of the day to pack up their belongings and leave.

In an interview with CNBC, Elon Musk defended Twitter's layoffs by saying axed employees received a three-month payment from the company, which is losing more than $4m a day. In response to his statements, many former employees took to social media sites to share their stories about how it felt to be fired.

One former employee said on Facebook that she was offered two weeks' pay for her 12 years of service with the company.

How have people reacted to his comments?

Many people have reacted negatively to Musk's comments, saying that the $3 million in severance pay is a paltry sum compared with their former salaries. They also pointed out that many of the fired employees are soon-to-be jobless because they had been planning to use Twitter as their next job.

I'm glad I didn't take the severance package, one former employee wrote on Reddit. It was only a few months' salary and now I'll be looking for work.

Others defended Musk's position by saying he's right that most employees at Silicon Valley companies don't stay long enough to receive much more than three months' worth of pay. Most startup jobs are 6 month contracts, one person said on Twitter. You make money while you're there and save up before your next contract. You can do this if you're unemployed or work part time or freelance on the side. You're not putting all your eggs into one basket like when you work for an established company. Some commenters agreed with this perspective, saying it's better to change career paths frequently instead of staying stuck in a dead-end job.

What does this mean for the future of Twitter?

The mass layoffs at Twitter are now becoming a topic of conversation for the public. Elon Musk defended the layoffs by saying that the employees who were fired received a three-month payment from the company. He also said that this is just a small part of the process. The question remains if it's really worth it to let go of so many talented people? In order to move forward with their plan, they will have to find new and creative ways to keep on innovating and stay relevant in this ever changing business world. It has been reported that there will be more layoffs coming up as well.

The future of Twitter seems uncertain but according to Musk, this could mean an increase in innovation and success for the company. It'll be interesting to see what happens going into 2020.