- Twitter abruptly closed its offices on Thursday amid a mass resignation.
- Employees were asked to leave and barred from re-entry until Monday.
Twitter's offices abruptly shut down on Thursday as hundreds of employees refused to continue working under Elon Musk's new vision for the social platform.
Company officials told employees all buildings were being temporarily closed, effective immediately, and that their ability to renter with ID access was being suspended for the time being, two people familiar with the company's action told Insider. The offices are expected to reopen Monday.
A current employee noted the closing of offices is a dramatic move, but intended to "prevent physical sabotage while they sort out access revocations," according to a Slack message seen by Insider. The closure was first reported on Twitter by Zoe Schiffer of the Platformer newsletter.
The closure came about an hour after Musk's 5 pm ET deadline for Twitter workers to officially sign on to his new "extremely hardcore" plans for the company. Less than 50% of the company's remaining staff of roughly 4,000 people signed up to work at "Twitter 2.0,"as Insider reported, meaning they effectively resigned under the terms Musk offered in a Tuesday ultimatum.
So few people signed up to Musk's offer that he and other executives attempted to personally convince some "critical" personnel to stay with the company, as Insider reported. In one such meeting, some staffers who had called in via videoconference began to hang up after the 5 p.m. deadline, according to a report in The New York Times, even as Musk continued speaking.
This is the second time offices have suddenly closed since Musk took over Twitter. The company closed offices and barred employees from entering the evening Musk began to enact mass layoffs about three weeks ago. In an email sent at the time regarding the offices being closed, the company said the move was to "ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data."
Thursday's closure came a week after Musk sent his first company-wide email to Twitter employees, saying that remote work at the company was no longer acceptable, save for those doing "exceptional" work. In the days since, Musk has softened his stance on remote work, saying Thursday that it would continue to be allowed with a manager's approval and backing.
Twitter did not respond to Insider's request for comment.