On Friday, hundreds of Twitter employees were laid off across all divisions. Just one week after being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, this drastic cost-cutting measure has the potential to significantly alter the operation of one of the world’s most important platforms.

There was a lot of chatter on Twitter Thursday night and Friday morning from Twitter workers who said they had been locked out of their business email accounts the night before they were to get their layoff notices. A few of them even used blue heart and salute emojis to indicate they were done with the firm.

What the employees are tweeting

Employees from a wide variety of Twitter departments, including “ethical AI,” “marketing and communication,” “search,” “public policy,” “health,” and others, began tweeting their resignations on Friday morning. Employee tweets suggest that those who worked on the platform’s “curation team,” which highlights authoritative content such as election results, were also laid go.

“I was just locked off of my work laptop and pulled off of Slack,” one Twitter employee complained. It’s unfortunate that things have to finish this way.

The human rights unit at Twitter, according to another employee, has been disbanded. Additionally, the employee expressed her satisfaction with the group’s efforts “to protect those at risk in global conflicts and crises, such as those in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, and to defend the needs of journalists and human rights defenders who are especially at risk of human rights abuse because of their social media presence.”

The way of firing employees:

Former Twitter senior community manager Simon Balmain told CNN that he was dismissed on Friday and that he was cut off from Slack, email, and other internal systems around 8 hours before receiving an email notifying him he was fired. In addition, he said that the termination email “still didn’t reveal much” about the reasons for his dismissal.

“The enormous solidarity we’ve seen from individuals in the firm, people in the same position, and people who left the company years ago significantly lessens the waves of rage and frustration and all that stuff,” Balmain added. It’s great how people are so willing to help one another.

On Friday, a dismissed Twitter employee told CNN that some former employees are happy to be jobless. “Being safe would have been a penalty for me,” the worker explained.

Musk went to an investor conference on Friday for a pleasant interview as Twitter staff were complaining online about being let go. He discussed his aspirations to travel to Mars and his efforts to reduce the cost of electric vehicles. Musk added, “I attempted to get out of the arrangement” with Twitter during the interview. Following that, he stated, “I think there is a lot of promise, and I think it may be one of the most valuable firms in the world.”

In response to the interviewer’s claim that Musk had dismissed “half of Twitter,” Musk nodded but otherwise remained nothing.

In a series of tweets sent late on Friday, Yoel Roth, head of Twitter’s trust and safety team, revealed that the firm has laid off around half of its employees. According to Roth, the layoffs eliminated fifteen percent of the company’s trust and safety team, which negatively impacted customer support but did not significantly alter the moderation of material.

Musk seems to imply in the interview that the massive layoffs were required since the firm was experiencing “revenue issues” before he purchased it because to advertisers contemplating spending due to fears of a worsening economy.

Additionally, Musk stated that “a number of significant advertisers have ceased spending money on Twitter” after the purchase closed.

About 7,500 employees were employed by Twitter before to Musk’s takeover. About 3,700 employees lost their jobs once Musk took charge. Musk has taken on substantial debt to finance his $44 billion acquisition, and these layoffs are an effort to boost the company’s bottom line.

Employees were informed via email on Thursday night that they will get a notice about their employment on Friday at 12 p.m. ET.

The email, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, said, “If your job doesn’t change, you’ll get a message through your Twitter email.” In the event that your task is impacted, you will get an email with further information.

The email also said that the company’s offices would be shuttered momentarily and badge access would be halted “to assist make sure staff and Twitter’s systems are protected.”

This would be “a really painful thing for the workers to go through,” the email said.

Case filed against Twitter

On Thursday night, a group of former Twitter employees filed a class action complaint against the business, claiming that its layoff practices violate the federal and California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act).

According to the WARN Act, if a company with more than 100 employees plans to lay off 50 or more people from a single location, it must provide written notice to affected employees at least 60 days in advance.

“The wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, has made it quite obvious that he does not place a high value on adhering to federal labor regulations.” The plaintiff’s attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, made the following statement to CNN:. To ensure Twitter complies with the law and to prevent Twitter workers from signing away their rights inadvertently, “we filed this federal complaint.”

According to CNN’s sources at the California Employment Development Department, as of Friday lunchtime, Twitter had not submitted any WARN letters.

Lawyers specializing in employment law told CNN on Friday that they had begun receiving inquiries from former Twitter workers wondering if their dismissals were illegal because of discrimination or retribution.

Lawyer and partner at Outten & Golden Chauniqua Young stated, “We’ve received messages from former Twitter workers inquiring about the nature of their dismissal. We’re looking at everything, from whether the employee was given adequate notice to whether they were terminated because of their membership in a legally protected class.”

Besides the potential for litigation stemming from the layoffs, several legal experts have warned that Musk’s handling of the cuts might cause him further trouble in the future, whether by making it difficult to attract new employees or by making it difficult to keep the employees he now has satisfied.

“Once you treat people like way, they remember it,” said Terri Gerstein, a fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program and Economic Policy Institute at Harvard Law School. “I would be astonished if the folks who are still there aren’t updating their resumes or talking about joining a union right now,” the source said of the remaining staff.

Musk reportedly made his first action as Twitter CEO by dismissing Parag Agrawal and two other executives, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The final words

And it appears that practically the entire C-suite has departed the company, either by being fired or by resigning, in the span of less than a week since Musk purchased the business. Musk has also eliminated Twitter’s board of directors.

On Friday, many workers expressed their appreciation for their workplace by using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked. A hashtag that was popular among Twitter staff inspired this.

The employees had an emotional touch with twitter. The way of firing is not getting easily excepted by those ex-employees. They did their best to this company.