XPost: alt.society.liberalism, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: zinn@reno.us   
      
   Nov 17 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Twitter employees are estimated to be   
   leaving the beleaguered social media company following an ultimatum from   
   new owner Elon Musk that staffers sign up for "long hours at high   
   intensity," or leave.   
      
   In a poll on the workplace app Blind, which verifies employees through   
   their work email addresses and allows them to share information   
   anonymously, 42% of 180 people chose the answer for "Taking exit option,   
   I'm free!"   
      
   A quarter said they had chosen to stay "reluctantly," and only 7% of the   
   poll participants said they "clicked yes to stay, I'm hardcore."   
      
   Musk was meeting some top employees to try and convince them to stay, said   
   one current employee and a recently departed employee who is in touch with   
   Twitter colleagues.   
      
   While it is unclear how many employees have chosen to stay, the numbers   
   highlight the reluctance of some staffers to remain at a company where   
   Musk has hastened to fire half its employees including top management, and   
   is ruthlessly changing the culture to emphasize long hours and an intense   
   pace.   
      
   The company notified employees that it will close its offices and cut   
   badge access until Monday, according to two sources. Security officers   
   have begun kicking employees out of the office on Thursday evening, one   
   source said.   
      
   Musk took to Twitter late on Thursday and said that he was not worried   
   about resignations as "the best people are staying."   
      
   The billionaire owner amid the flood of resignations also added that   
   Twitter has hit all time high in usage.   
      
   "And we just hit another all time high in Twitter usage...", he said in a   
   tweet, without elaborating.   
      
   Twitter, which has lost many of its communication team members, did not   
   respond to a request for comment.   
      
   PLATFORM STABILITY   
   The departures include many engineers responsible for fixing bugs and   
   preventing service outages, raising questions about the stability of the   
   platform amid the loss of employees.   
      
   On Thursday evening, the version of the Twitter app used by employees   
   began slowing down, according to one source familiar with the matter, who   
   estimated that the public version of Twitter was at risk of breaking   
   during the night.   
      
   "If it does break, there is no one left to fix things in many areas," the   
   person said, who declined to be named for fear of retribution.   
      
   Reports of Twitter outages rose sharply from less than 50 to about 350   
   reports on Thursday evening, according to website Downdetector, which   
   tracks website and app outages.   
      
   In a private chat on Signal with about 50 Twitter staffers, nearly 40 said   
   they had decided to leave, according to the former employee.   
      
   And in a private Slack group for Twitter's current and former employees,   
   about 360 people joined a new channel titled "voluntary-layoff," said a   
   person with knowledge of the Slack group.   
      
   A separate poll on Blind asked staffers to estimate what percentage of   
   people would leave Twitter based on their perception. More than half of   
   respondents estimated at least 50% of employees would leave.   
      
   Blue hearts and salute emojis flooded Twitter and its internal chatrooms   
   on Thursday, the second time in two weeks as Twitter employees said their   
   goodbyes.   
      
   By 6 p.m. Eastern, over two dozen Twitter employees across the United   
   States and Europe had announced their departures in public Twitter posts   
   reviewed by Reuters, though each resignation could not be independently   
   verified.   
      
   Early on Wednesday, Musk had emailed Twitter employees, saying: "Going   
   forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an   
   increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore".   
      
   The email asked staff to click "yes" if they wanted to stick around. Those   
   who did not respond by 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday would be considered   
   to have quit and given a severance package, the email said.   
      
   As the deadline approached, employees scrambled to figure out what to do.   
      
   One team within Twitter decided to take the leap together and leave the   
   company, one employee who is leaving told Reuters.   
      
   Notable departures included Tess Rinearson, who was tasked with building a   
   cryptocurrency team at Twitter. Rinearson tweeted the blue heart and   
   salute emojis.   
      
   In an apparent jab at Musk's call for employees to be "hardcore," the   
   Twitter profile bios of several departing engineers on Thursday described   
   themselves as "softcore engineers" or "ex-hardcore engineers."   
      
   As the resignations rolled in, Musk cracked a joke on Twitter.   
      
   "How do you make a small fortune in social media?" he tweeted. "Start out   
   with a large one."   
      
      
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)