Laid-off Twitter manager says he was told not to address employees' questions and concerns after Elon Musk's takeover, which felt 'evil'
PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
- An ex-Twitter manager said being told to ignore his workers' concerns after Musk joined felt "evil."
- Amir Shevat said Twitter failed to communicate with staff about what was going on.
- Shevat, who said he looked after 150 staff, told Insider he was laid off with most of his team.
A senior Twitter employee who was laid off said it felt wrong to ignore questions and concerns from his team after Elon Musk acquired the platform.
Amir Shevat, the former head of product for Twitter's developer platform, told Insider on Tuesday that the company's management style changed immediately after Musk took over in late October.
"We got zero communication," Shevat said. "Not only that, we were told as managers not to gather our team and address their questions and concerns. It felt a little evil, I'm sorry to say, and bullish."
Shevat said there were 150 people on his team, but he was told that only two workers remained, post-layoffs. He said he found out he was laid off after he was locked out of Slack and work emails around 1 a.m. on November 4.
In the week between Musk joining and Shevat being laid off, Shevat said he was assigned random tasks that lacked any context.
One day, Twitter told Shevat to "stack rank" his team from top to bottom. When he asked whether this was based on performance, impact, or seniority, the higher-ups told him they didn't know.
Before Musk became the owner of Twitter, Shevat said he knew what was expected of him to be a good leader for his team.
"The Twitter post-Elon was 'sit there and don't do anything' basically, and 'don't talk to your team, don't calm them down, don't do anything'," Shevat said.
According to Shevat, Twitter leaders gave managers such as himself no answers about whether they should continue with the work they were doing. He described the approach as "inhumane."
Twitter's lack of communication seeped through into its layoffs, Shevat said, with many employees not being given notice they were getting fired.
"There wasn't any consideration for people with disabilities, visas, maternity leave and sick leave," said Shevat, who recently created a list of hiring companies for former Twitter staff.
Since being laid off, Shevat said he has filed an arbitration claim against Musk for not following through with the promise of providing severance, which includes pay and benefits for two months. His attorney, Lisa Bloom, told Insider it seemed that Musk cared "very little" about the employees who built Twitter and for those who still work there.
Shevat said it was shocking that his team received no communication and were mostly all fired, despite coming into Musk's Twitter with "an open heart" and being eager to create new features for the platform.
"If this would have gone differently, Elon would have won a team that is deeply passionate, that deeply cares about Twitter and its platform," Shevat said.
Twitter didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/9BOYXga
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Friday, December 16, 2022
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