New Twitter CEO Elon Musk reportedly plans to force all its remaining employees to return to the office, just under a week after he officially acquired the company.
The move, reported by Axios (opens in new tab), comes as the social networking giant may also be planning to lay off a third of its workforce, a move which could impact up to 3,700 of its employees.
The decision to force workers back into the office contrasts squarely with some of the previous actions taken by Twitter; in May 2020 the firm told its employees they would “never” have to come back to the office if they so choose.
What’s the motivation?
Musk has previously made his distaste for remote working at his companies clear in the past on several occasions.
In June 2020, an internal memo to Tesla staff urged employees to return to the office for a 40-hour work week, or “pretend to work somewhere else”, despite the world being gripped by the pandemic at the time.
Musk’s acquisition has already led to significant changes at Twitter.
Many of the company’s senior leadership team have already been sacked, including its chief executive Parag Agrawal and its chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde.
The plans to end remote working could well be linked to ambitious plans to revamp the company’s business model.
The company engineers have been ordered to rebuild the company’s “blue tick” verification system on short notice.
The project would see the website’s $4.99-per-month premium service, replaced by an $8-a-month scheme that would also include identity verification, alongside features such as reduced exposure to advertising.
The news comes as workers are continuing to favor jobs that allow remote working.
A global survey by Linkedin (opens in new tab) found that flexibility was the third most important priority for all job candidates, after compensation and balance.
