We saw this from a mile away, that’s for sure. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been ramping up to be a long, arduous, heartbreaking process. I say heartbreaking because recently Elon Musk stated that he plans to either replace or eradicate 75% of the Twitter workforce.
That is a devastating number. Now, Twitter doesn’t have a million and a half employees sure. But the people who do work there have lives. They have families who need that income, especially now. Inflation doesn’t seem to be slowing down and most believe the only way for it to stop is to see another crash as we did in 2008.
If that is actually the case, the people working here will need jobs. If a larger company like Amazon did the same thing, there would be public outrage, so it is no surprise that Twitter employees are protesting this move. Their livelihoods are on the line.
In an open letter being circulated by Twitter employees, they are making demands. Honestly, they have the right. You’re talking about going from 7,500 to 2,000 workers in a blink of an eye…and why exactly?
In an article by TIME Musk stated, “that the social media company is bloated, and has also said its workforce has a strong left-wing bias”.
But what does that have to do with anything? The employees do not make up the Twitter policies, so as long as they continue to do their jobs, why does it matter if most of the workforce is left-wing?
Parler, the free speech platform is most likely made up of mostly right-wing individuals, but that doesn’t mean they should be fired or face disciplinary action.
In the Twitter employee’s open letter they said “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.”
The letter also demands that Musk does not make changes to staff based on political beliefs. If changes are made, he must commit to fair severance policies and for employees to be treated with dignity.
In my favorite line, Twitter employees have demanded they not be “treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires”. They are right though. I think when people make decisions like this, they believe the fallout isn’t insignificant, but what we all need to remember – rich or poor – is that we are all people trying to survive in this world. These people at Twitter need their jobs in this harsh economy and firing them without a second thought is condemning them to more struggle and hardship.
If people need to be fired, fire them with sound reasoning, not because their viewpoints are different from yours.
A native New Englander who migrated to Austin on a whim, Stephanie Dominique is a freelance copywriter, novelist, and certificate enthusiast. When she's not getting howled at by two dachshunds or inhaling enough sugar to put a giant into shock, she is reading, cooking or writing about her passions.
