Some Twitter staff hung up on Elon Musk as he tried to persuade them to stay during a last-minute video call

• Elon Musk and his team were taken off guard by the number of staff who chose to take severance.
• With the workforce now 73% smaller than before his takeover, he tried to persuade key staff to stay.

Several Twitter employees hung up on Elon Musk as he tried to persuade them to stay at the company, two people familiar with the events told the New York Times.

Musk issued an ultimatum to all staff on Wednesday, saying they needed to commit to work "long hours at a high intensity" because Twitter had to be "extremely hardcore." Employees had until 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday to accept, or be laid-off with three months' severance.

So many staff rejected Musk's offer that it caught him and his transition team off guard, a person familiar with the company told Insider's Kali Hays.

With so few people agreeing to his vision, team managers were told to draw up lists of staff "critical" to Twitter's future, but deemed as a "flight risk," Insider reported.

The world's richest person then held meetings with key employees who were on the fence about staying. Some staff were sent to a conference room in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, while others were asked to attend a video call.

Nobody was offered more money, but staff were urged to be excited about Musk's "vision" and Twitter's future potential, Insider previously reported.

Musk tried to persuade them to stay by saying he "knew how to win," and that others who wanted to "win" should join him, one person he spoke with told the New York Times.

But as the 5:00 pm deadline hit, some on the video call began hanging up, even as Musk continued speaking.

Insider reported that less than half of Twitter's remaining employees signed up to Musk's vision to "build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0." That means what was a 7,500-strong workforce before his takeover will be reduced to less than 2,000 – a 73% decrease.

An hour after the deadline, Twitter's offices were closed, just as they were during Musk's first round of layoffs. The company's largest Slack channel, called "social-watercooler," was "flooded again" with staffers sharing the salute emoji.

In the weeks since Musk's takeover, the emoji has become a common sign-off for Twitter staffers leaving the company, convenient for a quick goodbye before being locked out of work communications.