Elon Musk pulls Tesla employees to review code base on Twitter

The maneuvers of Elon Musk, who now calls himself “Chief Twit“, are growing at the recently acquired social media company Twitter. As reported by CNBC, citing several Twitter employees, Elon Musk has removed more than 50 employees from all of his other businesses, including electric car maker Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company.

Most of the employees transferred to Twitter are software engineers tasked with reviewing the social media giant’s code bases and finding ways to improve products. While this remains Elon Musk’s plan, some Twitter staffers believe that bringing Tesla and SpaceX personnel into the company has more hidden agendas. Some even think it’s a way for Musk to find out who to lay off in his frantic efforts to cut costs.

Specifically, some of the trusted employees being removed include, but are not limited to, Director of Software Development Ashok Elluswamy, Director of Autopilot and TeslaBot Engineering Milan Kovac, Senior Director of Software Engineering Maha Virduhagiri, Pete Scheutzow, a senior staff technical program manager, and Jake Nocon, who is part of Tesla’s surveillance unit, as Senior Director of Security Intelligence.

Current Twitter employees confirmed that they have been ordered to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, in an attempt to meet tight deadlines and deliverables that have been defined by Elon Musk. This includes learning about the source code used to build some of the social media giant’s products and better understanding content moderation and data protection requirements.

This week of intense work will be a defining moment for some of these Twitter employees, as many of them could be fired if their results are not satisfactory.

Elon Musk and the new Twitter

We have no idea what Elon Musk’s new Twitter will be like. For now, communication between the company’s employees has died down, as evidenced by the silence of Slack communication channels.

Not knowing what to expect in terms of layoffs, staff remain concerned about Twitter’s aggressive approach to reorganization, which does not adequately address staff welfare. The overtime that staff will have to work has not been discussed in terms of additional compensation or guaranteed job security.

Elon Musk confirmed that he would not lay off 75% of Twitter’s staff. However, the expectations will go beyond not laying off, and will focus on getting what is really expected in terms of appropriate compensation for all.

Elon Musk gave details on some of his plans to monetize Twitter’s verification badge, which he says will only be retained for those who subscribe to Twitter Blue. Many eyes are on Twitter’s evolution now that Elon Musk is the sole CEO and director of the company.