Twitter has stopped paying rent for its offices, plans to not pay severance packages to laid-off workers- Technology News, Firstpost

Mehul Reuben DasDec 14, 2022 11:01:57 IST

It seems that Elon Musk is contemplating ways to cut costs on Twitter’s day-to-day operations. However, the way that he is going about is rather bizarre, to say the least. As per a report by the New York Times, Twitter has stopped paying rent for all of its offices, including its headquarters in San Francisco. Musk has also instructed employees to not pay any of Twitter’s vendors, until further notice.

Musk and his team at Twitter are facing multiple lawsuits, including wrongful termination discrimination at the workplace for disproportionately targeting women, workers on family leave, and specially-abled people. By stopping severance pay, he is bound to face more lawsuits.
Image Credit: AFP

Twitter, has also been sued by a chartered flight operator for refusing to pay nearly $200,000 in private plane flights taken in late October.

What’s even more bizarre, is that now, Musk is considering not paying any severance to the employees that he had either fired when he took control of Twitter or whom he forced to quit when he announced his vision for Twitter 2.0.

In an effort to cut costs and save money, Elon Musk, first fired over 50 per cent of the 7200 people or so on Twitter’s payroll. He then additionally terminated about 4000 contractual content moderators. Furthermore, he made another 1200 people leave Twitter, when he announced his vision of Twitter 2.0. All in all, since Musk took over, over 75 per cent of Twitter’s workforce had left.

When the terminations began, Musk had promised that all employees who are either being terminated or have decided to leave on their own accord, would get 3 months’ pay, including 60 days of salaried pay, and one month of severance. Musk and his team is now risking more lawsuits from disgruntled former workers. Musk and Twitter have already been sued for wrongful termination and discrimination at the workplace for disproportionately targeting women, workers on family leave, and specially-abled people.

Musk also recently put a bunch of items from Twitter’s San Francisco HQ up for auction. Apart from novelties and souvenirs such as a large Twitter bird statue, the items on auction include office furniture, computers, and items from Twitter’s pantry. And while the auctioneer, Nick Dove of Heritage Global Partners, has said that anyone who believes the auction is a part of preserving finances is a “moron,” this facade seems to be falling flat to its face.

Despite the number of legal battles that Musk and Twitter are looking at, Elon has shaken up Twitter’s legal department because of Twitter Files, and has brought in lawyers from SpaceX and other companies that he owns, to take care of the litigations that Musk and Twitter will face.