Musk: Twitter has 2,300 staff left instead of 1,300 after the cuts

Elon Musk said that after all the layoffs, Twitter still has 30% of its staff, i.e. 2,300 employees. The social networking chief explained that the media's assumption that 1,300 employees remained at the company is incorrect, as according to his figures Twitter still has 2,300 of the 7,500 people who previously worked at the company until late October, when Musk bought the platform.

"Twitter has about 2,300 active working employees. There are still hundreds of employees working on trust and security moderation, as well as several thousand contractors. Less than 10 people from my other companies work on Twitter," Musk clarified.

In addition, Musk continues to work closely with developers and engineers on the platform to implement new features and updates. As part of that work, Musk goes around the developers in the office at the weekend and hugs those he meets as part of International Hug Day. Judging by the photo, this floor of the company, probably its headquarters, is not particularly crowded.

Earlier CNBC reported that Twitter had cut its staff by 80% following Musk's purchase of the company. Of the 7,500 people left there, 550 engineers and 750 non-developmental employees at the company - moderators, managers, tech support representatives, as well as the accounting and HR departments. In addition to the remaining 1,300 full-time Twitter employees, Musk has authorized 130 employees from his other companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Co. to work for the social network. But even this technical staff is not enough to keep the current services up and running.

As one CNBC source among the laid-off engineers noted, the massive layoffs and reassignment of duties to the remaining workers has made maintaining the social network's IT infrastructure much more difficult, while introducing new features based on Musk's requirements and tweaking existing options with a 2-3 week deadline for each project.

Earlier, CNBC reported that Twitter reduced its staff by 80 percent after Musk bought the company. Out of 7,500 people, 550 engineers and 750 employees who are not involved in the development of services at the company - moderators, managers, technical support representatives, as well as accounting and human resources departments - remain there. In addition to the remaining 1,300 full-time Twitter employees, Musk has authorized 130 employees from his other companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Co. to work for the social network. But even this technical staff is not enough to keep the current services up and running.

As one of CNBC's sources among the laid-off engineers noted, the massive layoffs and reassignment of duties to the remaining workers has made maintaining the social network's IT infrastructure much more difficult, while introducing new features based on Musk's requirements and tweaking existing options with a 2-3 week deadline for each project.

On 5 November, Musk sacked half of Twitter's 7,500 employees. After this event, Jack Dorsey, the creator of the short messaging service and twice former Twitter CEO, claimed responsibility for the mass layoffs at the company arranged by Musk. According to Dorsey, he was responsible for "the too rapid growth of Twitter's staff". On 16 November Musk gave all Twitter employees 24 hours to decide whether to switch to the new "hardcore" mode and not complain or leave the company with severance pay. Musk explained in a letter to employees that in order to create Twitter 2.0, the company must be extremely hardcore now. "This means long hours of high-intensity work. Only everyone's exceptional performance will be considered a passing grade," the company head warned employees. On 17 November, the media revealed that after the first wave of layoffs, 3,500 employees out of 7,500 remained at Twitter; after Musk's ultimatum to press the "Yes" button to participate in the "hardcore" Twitter 2.0 project, only between 2,000 and 2,500 employees agreed out of the remaining staff. On 18 November, the media revealed that at least 1,200 more full-time employees had left Twitter. This included the departure of several developers from the twenty full-time Twitter Command Center engineers. According to media sources, the core services team, which deals with computational architecture, was reduced to 4 people out of more than 100 employees. On 22 November Musk told a face-to-face meeting with the remaining Twitter employees that the company had ended the active phase of layoffs and was going to start hiring engineers and developers based on recommendations from platform employees. Twitter began a new wave of layoffs in early January. They affected employees and management in the company's Dublin and Singapore offices. For the most part, the termination notices were given to moderators and team members involved in reviewing posts on the platform for compliance with the social network's misinformation rules and policies, global user and organisation appeals, and handling government media publications.