After Twitter shares worth almost $3 billion fell into the hands of Elon Musk, the social media giant's employees were "caught in the crossfire," so to speak.
BusinessInsider reports that a handful of unnamed workers have called the multi-billionaire's board seat issues "a s******w." Not to mention, company CEO Parag Agrawal has also warned of "distractions ahead" which could interfere with their work for the foreseeable future.
Bloomberg, who originally broke out the report, stated that some Twitter employees are getting concerned over whether the massively popular Tesla head, who has over 81 million followers on their platform, is a friendly or hostile investor. They were thinking about the implications of Musk being the company's largest individual shareholder yet, that their supposed monthly "day of rest" was still fraught with uncertainty.
They were especially wary of Agrawal's decision to be friendly with the billionaire. Aside from "laying the groundwork" for Musk to be part of the company's board, Twitter even jumped the gun and proclaimed the SpaceX CEO a board member even if he hasn't even accepted it. Furthermore, Agrawal organized a Q&A session between Musk and Twitter employees originally set for this week, only for it to be canceled.
Eventually, Musk decided to stay off the Twitter Board, as announced by Agrawal on his official account:
Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022
As a result of these events, it might not be too easy to be an employee at Twitter right now. Several accounts state that workers are "super stressed" and "working together to help each other survive the week." There were even some folks who are wondering whether Musk staying off the board for now is his way of "biding time for a future power grab," as per the original Business Insider report. Overall, workers at the social media giant remain skeptical of Musk considering his past tirades against the company's apparent "failure" to adhere to principles of free speech, among others.
Elon Musk, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Inc., speaks at an unveiling event for The Boring Company Hawthorne test tunnel December 18, 2018 in Hawthorne, California. On Tuesday night, The Boring Company will officially open the Hawthorne tunnel, a preview of Musk's larger vision to ease traffic in Los Angeles.
What's Going To Happen Now?
Maybe the concern expressed by Twitter's employees are a bit warranted, as Elon Musk has been "slightly" throwing the weight of his influence around after buying his 9.2% stake. This is despite the nature of his purchase as being "passive," meaning he's not supposed to express any intention to change the company's policies.
Either way, the suggestions from the SpaceX head have already come forth. For instance, he asked his followers (in apparent jest) whether they want Twitter to be renamed. The tweet, as per Unilad, went viral but soon seemed to have been taken down and allegedly read, "Delete the w in twitter?" to which followers can only respond with "yes" and "of course."
He then put out another poll asking followers whether users want an official "Edit" button for their tweets. The response was in overwhelming favor of it (73.6%), with the rest voting "no." However, the words "yes" and "no" are misspelled in once again what looks to be a joking manner:
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
For now, there's no telling what Musk plans to do with his new purchase as he did gain a reputation for being rather unpredictable.
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Written by RJ Pierce
