The billionaire told employees in an email, “I would appreciate it if you could fly to San Francisco to be present in person.”
Twitter owner Elon Musk emailed Twitter staff on Friday asking that any employees who write software code report to the 10th floor of Twitter’s office in San Francisco early afternoon, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.
The billionaire said in a follow-up email, “I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person,” adding that he would be at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters until midnight and would return Saturday morning.
He said the engineers should report at 2 p.m. local time on Friday.
Elon Musk wants employees to fly in as they quit in droves
The emails came a day after hundreds of Twitter employees were estimated to have decided to quit the beleaguered social media company following a Thursday deadline from Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity,” or leave.
Musk ordered employees to email him a summary of what their software code has “achieved” in the past six months, “along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code.”
“There will be short, technical interviews that allow me to better understand the Twitter tech stack,” Musk wrote in one of the emails.
Musk earlier this week said that some Tesla engineers were assisting in evaluating Twitter’s engineering teams, but he said it was on a “voluntary basis” and “after hours.”
He said he would try to speak with remote employees by video. Musk also said that only people who cannot physically get to the company’s headquarters or have a family emergency would be excused.
Musk changes Twitter work policies
In his first email to Twitter employees this month, Musk said: “We are also changing Twitter policy such that remote work is no longer allowed unless you have a specific exception.”
“Managers will send the exceptions lists to me for review and approval.”
The billionaire’s first three weeks as Twitter’s owner have been marked by rapid change and chaos. He quickly fired Twitter’s previous CEO and other senior leaders and then laid off half its staff earlier this month.
Musk took to Twitter late on Thursday and said that he was not worried about resignations as “the best people are staying.”