Elon Musk emails Twitter employees; cancels remote work with 40 hours/week minimum

A culture change has come to the Twitter offices, as Elon Musk has sent his first email as the owner of the social media platform.

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Musk told employees that remote working will no longer be permitted unless he personally approves it and that employees will have to be in a Twitter office for at least 40 hours a week, Bloomberg News reported.

The change is effective immediately.

It’s a similar rule that Musk has introduced at his other companies such as SpaceX and Tesla, Reuters reported.

The owner and CEO also told his employees to prepare for “difficult times ahead,” Bloomberg reported.

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter about two weeks ago and has already slashed the workforce by half. He has introduced several changes, including offering a subscription to Twitter Blue for $8, Reuters reported.

Musk also canceled “days of rest” that Twitter employees were able to use, Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, Musk is telling advertisers that his takeover won’t impact their brands and that there may be some “dumb things” happening with the company as he tries to make it a better and safer user experience, The Associated Press reported.

One of the changes that Musk introduced was the “official” label on high-profile accounts, which was rolled back hours later on Wednesday.

The labels were added to Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple but then were quickly removed, the AP reported.

“Apart from being an aesthetic nightmare when looking at the Twitter feed, it was simply another way of creating a two-class system,” Musk told advertisers during a live Twitter broadcast. “It wasn’t addressing the core problem.”

Several companies, such as General Motors and United Airlines, have paused buying advertising on Twitter until they see what happens with Musk’s plans to adjust the oversight on the platform that limits hate speech.

Musk said he will be introducing a “content moderation council” that will advise when inappropriate content appears and to reassure advertisers. However, Musk had said it will be designed to advise and is “not a command council.”