Other employees were still called for meetings. Esther Crawford, a project manager, asked people to join a “standup” meeting in San Francisco at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, as some layoffs went out.
“I recognize that this is a crazy moment when Tweeps is losing access and the layoff is underway,” she wrote on Slack, adding a heartbroken emoji and a link to a video conference room, according to reports by The Times. were viewed. Ms. Crawford is working on Twitter Blue, a subscription product that has a November 7 deadline for roll-out or termination across the team.
A small group of employees videoconferenced to the meeting while Ms. Crawford went through product updates and troubleshooting. Suddenly, a member of the team dropped out in the middle of the call, three people with knowledge of the incident said. The person’s access was cut off from the Twitter network.
Many of the cuts were deep. Human rights and disability experience teams were curtailed, said three people familiar with the decision. The internet technology team — which is partly responsible for the site’s functioning — became “a skeleton crew,” two people said. The marketing, social, curator, studio and enforcement teams and the “Redbird” division of platform and infrastructure support were also affected.
People who work from home have been targeted by budget cuts, two people said.
On Friday morning at Twitter’s offices in San Francisco, which were closed to most employees, at least nine security guards patrolled the two buildings that make up the headquarters, pacing the perimeter and checking that some doors were locked. On a floor above one of the lobbies, the lights above us were dimmed.
Those who weren’t released tried to guess who was left, according to private group posts by The Times. They exchanged messages of support for workers who lost their jobs while… they were pregnant or on work visas. Some workers had resigned voluntarily so that colleagues with visas would not lose their jobs, two people familiar with the layoffs said.
Dismissed employees were told not to discuss their experience publicly, according to a copy of the resignation email seen by The Times. They were also told that they would receive more information about being fired within a week and that they had not been given a divorce agreement, former employees said. They said they understood that the layoff would likely be less than what Twitter’s previous management would have paid.
Lauren Hirsch, Emma Goldberg, Chang Cheo, Adam Satariano, Ben Dooley and Kalley Huang reporting contributed.
