Twitter begins a new wave of firings by letting go of contractors with no notice, reports say

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to slash roughly half of Twitter's 7,500 employees this week. But the conflict between Twitter's old guard and the new owner's loyalists is just getting started.

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• Twitter began firing contractors on Saturday, according to reports. 
• Some contractors told Axios they found out after being locked out of work accounts.
• Contractors also shared fears that they would not be able to receive their final paychecks.

Twitter has began to lay off its contract workforce, with some contractors finding out through a loss of access to work accounts, according to reports. 

Starting on Nov. 4, Twitter — under the new ownership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk — slashed its full-time employee workforce by nearly 50%.

Now, contractors appear to be the next target, with contractors telling Axios they were locked out of work accounts on Saturday. Similarly, many of Twitter's full-time employees also found out that they were being let go when they lost access to work platforms like Slack and email.

Some of these contractors work in content moderation, which had already been hit with layoffs, sources told Axios.

According to journalist Casey Newton, other departments, such as real estate and marketing, were also affected by contractor layoffs.

—Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 13, 2022

 

Some contractors told Axios they were worried about whether or not they would be able to receive their final paycheck, as many ended up on teams with no full-time employees following the layoffs. 

Melissa Ingle, a content moderation contractor, told Axios that she was worried about how the layoffs would affect her and her family financially.

"This is no way to treat people," Ingle told Axios.

—Melissa Ingle (@mingle74) November 13, 2022

 

Following Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company staff has been thrown into weeks of chaos.

Some laid-off Twitter staff were asked to come back after the company realized that they were essential to operations. Other Twitter staff filed a lawsuit, saying they were not given enough advance notice before their firings.

Now, employees are being asked by Musk to return to the office 40 hours a week or resign.

One current Twitter employee described the current environment as "ruthless" in an as-told-to essay by Insider's Jyoti Mann.

Twitter and representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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