• Twitter staff flooded internal Slack channels with salute emojis Thursday as Musk's stay-or-go deadline passed.
  • Employees had until 5 p.m. ET Thursday to commit to Musk's "hardcore" vision of be laid off.
  • Fewer than half of Twitter employees have accepted Musk's ultimatum, Insider reported.

Twitter employees flooded internal Slack channels with farewell messages and salute emojis as Elon Musk's "hardcore" stay-or-go deadline passed on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Musk sent a late-night email to Twitter employees telling them to commit to his "extremely hardcore" vision for the company or be laid off with three months' severance. The email contained a button for staff to click if they agreed with his vision and wanted to stay at the company, with a deadline of 5 p.m. ET Thursday.

"I'm not pressing the button," one departing Twitter staffer said in a Slack message Thursday, seen by The Verge. "My watch ends with Twitter 1.0. I do not wish to be part of Twitter 2.0."

Twitter's largest Slack channel, "social watercooler," was flooded with salute emojis — company shorthand for saying goodbye to coworkers — Insider's Kali Hays reported.

In another Slack message, seen by The New York Times, one employee said: "I've met so many friends here. And will always remember the good times at twtr."

After the deadline passed, fewer than half of Twitter's remaining staff had committed to Musk's "hardcore" vision for "Twitter 2.0," Insider reported — leaving senior leadership scrambling to convince some essential employees to stay.

"I have worked here at Twitter for over 11 years," one employee said in a Slack message seen by The Verge. "Back in July, I was the 27th most tenured employee at the company. Now I'm the 15th."

Twitter staff who appear not to have committed to Musk's vision also posted salute emojis on Twitter itself.

 

Twitter didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The salute emojis were also used by former Twitter employees as they were laid off and locked out of work systems during Musk's mass layoffs on November 4.

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