Elon Musk has been taking digs at AOC and cracking jokes while thousands of Twitter employees grappled with looming layoffs and sent each other well-wishes

• Elon Musk started fights with celebrities and cracked jokes as thousands of Twitter staff waited for layoff notices.
• Twitter employees shared heartfelt farewells on Slack and across social media over the past few days.

Elon Musk has been slow to communicate with Twitter staff but quick to crack jokes on social media over the past few days.

After a week of zero communication with Twitter employees from leadership following Musk's takeover, staff received a memo on Thursday confirming that layoffs would commence on Friday. Insider's Kali Hays previously reported that 50% of the company, or about 3,700 employees, will be axed. Musk's name was noticeably absent from the memo and layoff notices, which were simply signed "Twitter."

Over the past week, Twitter staff have operated under the constant threat of layoffs at a breakneck pace, with reports of 84-hour work weeks and weekends spent sleeping at the office.

On Friday, the company's Slack, as well as social media feeds, were flooded with heartfelt farewell messages from departing "Tweeps" — messages that stood in sharp contrast to Musk's tweets during the same period.

Around the same time Thursday night, Musk was joking about his ongoing feud with AOC in a response to a video of the congresswoman saying she believed the billionaire had "bricked" her Twitter after she made negative comments about his plan to charge users $8 per month for Twitter's blue check mark.

"What can I say?" Musk quipped. "It was a naked abuse of power."

He also tweeted out a crying-laughing emoji in response to a user who posted a meme with the message "AOC when she realizes she helped Elon buy Twitter."

Meanwhile, Twitter staff was flooding the company's Slack channels with heart emojis and salutes, tech newsletter writer Casey Newton reported.

"I don't have anything clever to say, I'm just devastated - personally, and for the magnificent culture and company we built together and is now gone," Ned Miles, a lead for audience insight at Twitter's London office, wrote. "I love you all."

Around the same time, Musk asked his millions of Twitter followers: "Why is small talk even legal!?" and shared insights like "A neuron doesn't realize it's a neuron."

Later on Friday morning, the billionaire responded to a reports of advertisers pulling out of Twitter by accusing activist groups of "pressuring the companies."

"They're trying to destroy free speech in America," Musk tweeted.

Many Twitter employees chose to ease the tension at the company by cracking jokes — referring to the impending layoffs as the Red Wedding (a reference to an iconic massacre scene from "Game of Thrones") or the Snap (another reference to "Avengers: Endgame").

Do you work at Twitter or were you recently laid off? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com