Mr. Musk’s team also considered the merits of not paying severance packages to the thousands who left the company after he took over, when it had about 7,500 full-time employees. While Mr. Musk and his advisers had previously considered forgoing any severance pay when discussing layoffs in late October, the company ultimately decided to pay U.S. employees at least two months’ salary and one month’s severance pay so the company could comply. Federal and State Labor Laws.
Musk’s team is now reconsidering whether it should pay some of those months’ expenses or simply face a lawsuit from disgruntled former employees, according to two people familiar with the matter. Many former employees still haven’t received any formal separation documents from Twitter, five people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Musk has already refused to pay millions of dollars in severance packages to executives he said were fired “for cause”.
With Twitter layoffs, Musk’s team has been hoping to renegotiate the terms of the lease agreement, two people familiar with the matter said. The company has received complaints from real estate investment and management firms, including Shorenstein, which owns Twitter’s San Francisco building.
A spokesman for Shorenstein declined to comment.
Among other money-saving moves, Twitter laid off its kitchen staff and began auctioning off office supplies, industrial-grade kitchen equipment and electronics from its San Francisco office.
Musk also continued to cut staff and leadership, including Nelson Abramson, Twitter’s global head of infrastructure, and Alan Rosa, global head of information technology and vice president of information security, according to four people familiar with the matter.
On Sunday night, Mr. Musk sent two emails to Twitter employees containing advice he had previously shared with SpaceX and Tesla employees on how to work for him. One of the messages focused on first-principles thinking, a worldview based on the teachings of Aristotle that reduces assumptions to basic axioms, which Musk believes helps him make tough decisions. Another argues against hierarchy in the workplace.
On Monday, Twitter notified members of its Trust and Safety Council, an advisory group formed in 2016, that it would be disbanding immediately. Created to guide Twitter through challenging safety and content moderation issues, the council is made up of organizations focused on civil rights and child safety.
