'Fired by mistake': Twitter begging some fired employees to come back

After laying off close to 50 per cent of its workforce, Twitter Inc is now asking them to return as they were terminated ‘by mistake’.

According to Bloomberg, the social media giant has reached out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs, asking them to come back.

Some of the employees who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake, Bloomberg reported citing two people familiar with the move. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features that the world’s richest man has envisioned.

Last week, Twitter witnessed a massive layoff across teams globally. In India, over 50 per cent of the staff was laid off without prior notice. About 3,200 sacked employees have moved to court against their ‘wrongful termination’.

Musk bought Twitter in a $44 billion deal on October 25. As his first order of business, he fired the top executives of the company, including the Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal, and legal head Vijay Gadde. He even terminated the board of directors and emerged as the sole director of the company and the CEO, as per an SEC filing.

Musk justified the layoffs in a tweet, “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.”

Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.

Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

Shortly after the terminations, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey took responsibility and apologised for the action taken by Musk.

Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.

— jack (@jack) November 5, 2022