WEBVTT - Kurt Wagner on Twitter Exodus (Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>Recently, Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, told employees

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<v Speaker 1>to either commit to the company's new hardcore work environment

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<v Speaker 1>or leave. Well, now it appears as though Mr Musk

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<v Speaker 1>is taking a software approach in an effort to convince

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<v Speaker 1>workers to remain at the company. We're going to take

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<v Speaker 1>a closer look now with Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner joins us

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<v Speaker 1>from our studios in San Francisco, looking at all things Twitter. Kurt,

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<v Speaker 1>thanks for being with us. It looks like the notion

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<v Speaker 1>of my way or the highway is has softened just

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<v Speaker 1>a bit, don't you think. Yeah, it's it feels a

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<v Speaker 1>little bit like it backfired or perhaps he uh, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>underestimated exactly how many people would take him up on

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<v Speaker 1>the ability to leave the company with three months severance.

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<v Speaker 1>What we're hearing was that today is this deadline was approaching.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, there were a handful of group meetings internally

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<v Speaker 1>where they were sort of trying to convince people that

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<v Speaker 1>day the Twitter was the right idea. We saw an

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<v Speaker 1>all hands email that was send out. It's sort of um,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, I didn't walk back the work from home

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<v Speaker 1>policy necessarily, but it definitely had a different tone. Someone'll relax,

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<v Speaker 1>sort of like, hey, you know, as long as your

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<v Speaker 1>managers says it's cool, don't worry about it, which is

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<v Speaker 1>not the tone he was putting out last week, and

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<v Speaker 1>so really gets you know, to the heart of this problem,

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<v Speaker 1>which is like, has been trying to cut costs, but

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<v Speaker 1>he has now cut so many people at Twitter, there's

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<v Speaker 1>some concern that there might not be enough people working

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<v Speaker 1>there next week to you know, keep this thing up

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<v Speaker 1>and running. Yeah, that's it, right, brain drain. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>these are the technocrats that are familiar with this platform,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's essential that they remain there to keep it operational, right,

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<v Speaker 1>and I would imagine that they're trying to do that

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<v Speaker 1>in this environment where where maybe people are feeling a

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<v Speaker 1>little of I don't want to say depressed necessarily, but

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<v Speaker 1>as you point your finger on the fact that probably

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<v Speaker 1>close to half the number of employees the company had

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<v Speaker 1>when Musk took over have been let go. Yeah, well

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<v Speaker 1>more than half, right, because he laid off half himself,

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<v Speaker 1>and then a week later he made this kind of

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<v Speaker 1>ultimatum to people, and we have been unable to put

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<v Speaker 1>an exact number on it, but everyone we're talking to

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<v Speaker 1>is like, man, the number of people who took this

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<v Speaker 1>buyout is way bigger than expected, and so, uh, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>we're we're looking at now being down again. I would

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<v Speaker 1>be totally guessing, but you know, well over half of

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<v Speaker 1>the staff that he had when he first took over.

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, this is maybe the size of a

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<v Speaker 1>company that could work if you started from zero and

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<v Speaker 1>built your way up. The challenges. You know, there's going

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<v Speaker 1>to be people and when things start to go wrong,

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<v Speaker 1>there might not be someone there to to fix it right,

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<v Speaker 1>and they're going to be scrambling to try and kind

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<v Speaker 1>of sell these seats that they didn't even know are empty.

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<v Speaker 1>And I think that's where it becomes really complicated is

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<v Speaker 1>in the short term. So it's the struggle for the

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<v Speaker 1>people that have tried to remain this this culture of

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<v Speaker 1>you know, everybody's got to be in the office working

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<v Speaker 1>more than forty hours a week. There is no more

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<v Speaker 1>remote working. Is that really the problem or is it

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<v Speaker 1>more than how the culture of the company has changed

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<v Speaker 1>under Musk. I think they're they're both issues for a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people on Twitter. You know, on the one hand,

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<v Speaker 1>there was a lifestyle that came with working at a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of tech companies, but Twitter in particular, they've had

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<v Speaker 1>remote work for a couple of years now. That was

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<v Speaker 1>a big part of it. Right, Some people move their families,

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<v Speaker 1>they built their whole life around this idea that they

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<v Speaker 1>could work from anywhere, and suddenly they're being told they

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<v Speaker 1>have to be in the office forty hours a week.

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<v Speaker 1>That's that's the kind of thing that makes someone want

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<v Speaker 1>to get a new job. And then on top of that,

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<v Speaker 1>Ellen is just a really hard person to work for.

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<v Speaker 1>Right He's incredibly demanding, his his standards are very high.

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<v Speaker 1>He kind of you know, it feels that you need

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<v Speaker 1>to be in the office to work, which kind of

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<v Speaker 1>makes more sense with the company like Tesla that I

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<v Speaker 1>think than it does with a software company like Twitter.

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<v Speaker 1>And so I think there's a lot of people who

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<v Speaker 1>are saying, Okay, do I want to work for this

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<v Speaker 1>type of person and I'm willing to do all of

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<v Speaker 1>these other things that you know, our actual life changes

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<v Speaker 1>for me and possibly my family. And I think there's

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people that are just saying, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm willing to go look elsewhere. Thanks Kurt for helping

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<v Speaker 1>us understand uh the new adoption on the part of

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<v Speaker 1>Elon Musk to maybe use a software approach in trying

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<v Speaker 1>to convince UH workers on Twitter to remain with the company.

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<v Speaker 1>Kurt Wagner, Bloomberg's tech reporter from San Francisco here on

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<v Speaker 1>day Break Asia,