Elon Musk's ultimatum to Twitter employees: work 'extremely hard' or leave

Elon Musk's ultimatum to Twitter employees: work 'extremely hard' or leave

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, gave employees until Thursday night to commit to “extremely hard” work or leave the company, according to a copy of an internal email sent late at night by Twitter. 

“Going forward, to make progress on Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely tough,” Musk wrote in the memo. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

In the memo, Musk explains how Twitter will be “much more engineering-driven” and then gives staff an ultimatum.

“If you’re sure you want to be a part of the new Twitter, click Yes on the link below,” which directs staff to what appears to be an online form.

Musk added that employees who have not completed it by 5 p.m. ET this Thursday will receive three months of compensation. The Washington Post was the first to report on the memo.

The email, with the subject line “A Fork in the Road,” comes after Musk has publicly and privately confronted Twitter employees about his approach to running the company. It also comes after the businessman ousted top Twitter executives, eliminated the board of directors and laid off about half of the staff.

“Whatever decision you make,” Musk ends in the memo, “thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.”