Employees salute out of Twitter after Elon Musk's 'extremely hardcore' ultimatum

As per a report by CNN, another employee exodus appears to be underway at Twitter as many employees rejected Elon Musk's terms for staying with the company, choosing instead to leave.According to CNN, some Twitter employees appeared to publicly declare they had decided to leave the company as the time for responding to Elon Musk's ultimatum approched.

On Thursday afternoon, Twitter employees started using the salute emoji, which has come to represent someone leaving the organisation. One worker at Twitter claimed in a tweet that choosing to work there was "one of the easiest decisions ever made. Deciding to leave today was 100% the opposite."

Employees told CNN that after the deadline of 5 p.m. Eastern Time, an internal Slack channel at the company was flooded with staff members posting the salute emoji to indicate they had decided not to sign Musk's commitment and leave the organisation.

According to an email, Musk wrote to colleagues on Wednesday, Twitter's surviving employees had until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday to decide if they wanted to be a part of the culture Musk intends to implement at the social media business or else effectively resign.

A recent departing former executive from Twitter called the employee departures on Thursday a "mass exodus."

According to a copy of the email acquired by CNN from a current Twitter employee, the company's offices would be temporarily locked on Thursday evening following the employees' departures, and credential access will be restricted through Monday. During the big layoffs earlier this month, Musk's team similarly closed off offices out of concern for safety and a purported worry that departing employees could try to harm the company on their way out.

"This will mean working long hours at high intensity," he said in a statement quoted by New York Post. "Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade."

According to New York Post, the ultimatum comes after Musk reportedly asked senior workers at Twitter to search through internal Slack talks to discover disloyal colleagues to fire, according to Insider. Musk is apparently plagued with the concern that disloyal employees will ruin the platform.

As per a report by New York Post, in response, Twitter employees are scrambling to delete Slack messages and emoji reactions that could be interpreted as critical of Musk, thus giving him a reason to fire them.

An employee of Twitter told New York Post that people who have been fired probably left negative comments and posts in the internal Slack channel 'Social Watercooler,' where staff members frequently gathered to chat online and spread rumours about the business.

After it was determined that they had questioned management, Musk fired up to 20 software engineers and developers from Twitter.

In about two weeks under Musk's leadership, Twitter has fired over 3,700 people, and a slew of high-ranking execs have resigned. (ANI)