That confused the agency. With people crammed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout and body odor has lingered on the floors, according to four current and former employees. Bathrooms have gotten dirty, these people said. And as cleaning services have largely ceased, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.
Mr. Musk’s erratic and practical style has upset some employees, as he often interrupts seemingly random meetings, talks for long periods of time, and asks some top leaders to be sounding boards for his ideas, two people familiar with his management of according to Twitter.
He has also asked some leaders to cut down the sources of leaks to the press and anonymous posts on social media sites, three people said, and is aiming to eliminate those within the company who he believes are against him.
Workers expect more layoffs. Because sales staff have been cut less than other teams in previous rounds of layoffs, some people expect further cuts in the division. U.S. sales numbers continue to fall, with ad revenue falling significantly in the first week of December compared to a year ago, two people said.
Despite the significant cutbacks, Mr. Musk continued to issue in some territories. Twitter has hired several new employees in recent weeks, replacing employees laid off during mass layoffs in November.
But the training process for new employees has been significantly reduced to 90 minutes of what was once three days of orientation, including information about compliance with privacy and security agreements with global regulators, three people said. In one case, a new hire contacted a former employee on LinkedIn to gain insight into how services worked at the company, the former employee said.
Mr. Musk has also brought in dozens of engineers from his other companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, to work at Twitter. While Tesla engineers aren’t on Twitter’s payroll, the automaker billed the social media company for some of their services as if they were contractors, according to documents viewed by a former Twitter executive.
