- Elon Musk gave Twitter workers an ultimatum to stay or leave by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday.
- Less than half of the company's remaining employees accepted the offer to stay, Insider reported.
A Twitter employee shared a video online showing employees of the social media site who rejected an ultimatum from Elon Musk count down the seconds until they're set to be let go on Thursday night.
Musk told Twitter staff this week that they would either commit to an "extremely hardcore" version of the company or reject it and resign, with a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Less than half of the company's remaining 4,000 employees accepted the offer to stay, Insider's Kali Hays reported.
"30 seconds left — 35 seconds," the employee says in the video, posted Thursday just after 5 p.m. ET.
He then pans the camera to show four other individuals huddling together in an empty office, where a "Love Where You Work" sign glows in the background.
"Everybody here, we're all about to get fired from Twitter. I've been ... nine years and nine months now," the former employee says. He then asks the other former employees how long they worked at the company.
One man says they worked at Twitter for over nine years. Another said four years and two months. "Nine years and a month," another former worker says.
"Happy New Year," he finally ironically cheers as the deadline passes. Another employee throws his hands in the air.
"Let's try the badges," the employee goes on to say, apparently referring to the security badges that allow them access to the building. Twitter abruptly shut down its offices Thursday after the mass resignation.
—Matt Miller (@brainiaq2000) November 17, 2022
After Musk's ultimatum to Twitter employees this week warning they'll need to be willing to work "long hours at a high intensity" so they could "build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0," workers flooded the company's Slack channels with goodbye messages.
The ultimatum and reported mass exodus left shockwaves throughout the social media site late Thursday night, as users flocked to send "last tweets" and farewell notes.
It's the latest episode in the chaotic saga that's unfolded since Musk assumed control of Twitter in late October.
After finally acquiring Twitter in a long-delayed $44 billion deal, the Tesla CEO moved swiftly to gut the social media firm's workforce in an effort to boost profitability. He immediately fired Twitter's top executives and laid off roughly half of its employees shortly afterward.
He tried to reassure advertisers that the new Twitter would continue to be a safe space for them to spend their money, but many brands have paused ads on the platform. The prospect of less content moderation on Twitter has unnerved advertisers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Musk has also rolled out some new features, including an $8-per-month fee for a blue verification checkmark, which was previously reserved for users with confirmed identities. The plan led users to impersonate brands and individuals and is now being postponed until later in November.