Twitters company culture? Used to have an amazing culture, unsure of future

A total of 3,700 Tweeps were fired on Nov. 5. It was the end of an era for many Twitter employees, with some working there for more than a decade. Theres no question that it was a sad day for those who will no longer be employed by the social media platform recently acquired by Elon Musk, but what about the other half of the company that remains?

Its inevitable that Twitter will never be the same again, which begs the question if those still employed should stay or leave. Musk already made decisions to say goodbye to days of rest, cancel the remote work policy and have staff return to the office full-time. Hes let go of half of a 7,500-staffed company, and thats going to have a significant impact, said S. Chris Edmonds, president, CEO and founder of the Purposeful Culture Group. It goes back to whats the strategy? What are you promoting? How are you communicating this saying this is our reason for being and heres how these changes are going to help us get there? It doesnt seem as if there has been a formalized strategy.

What you have to say is heres where were going, heres what were going to stand for, and heres how were going to operate, he continued. Since the news that came at the end of last week, Twitter employees have taken to anonymous workplace community platform Blind expressing their concerns with the future of the company. Used to have an amazing culture, unsure of the future, said a machine learning engineer at the company. A software engineer wrote recent changes in management are causing a lot of uncertainty and stress from people being let go or quitting. Another person said since Elon took over, everything is unpredictable, bad management and communication.

An anonymous Twitter employee told Business Insider that one of Twitters core values is or was transparency. All of our calendars were open. You could look at our former head of engineerings calendar and see where he was having lunch that day. Documents were usually open and viewable. With a project, you could see who initiated the work, who was the assignee, who was in the chain of command. Thats all gone now.

Twitter employees on Blind used to say things like Twitter has this great culture of collaboration, its people first and I love that about it and Great compensation, great culture. Now on Twitter, employees are using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked to share stories of their memorable times at the company. Business Insider reported that staff at Twitter have been clocking much longer hours than usual since Musk took over, with his team assigning staff big tasks on tight deadlines. CNBC reported that Twitter managers have told some staff to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, while The New York Times reported that some managers slept at the office on weekends.

I think there is survivors guilt for those who remain, said Kaydee Bridges, the former head of corporate marketing and brand at Cardinal Health who has worked with employees at Twitter for over a decade. They are probably wondering if theyre next on the chopping block, and even if theyre not, its certain that their workload is going to increase substantially. Those survivors are going to want to know where theyre going, what the new company is going to stand for, said Edmonds, who from a company culture standpoint says that Musk must be intentional instead of only acting on instinct in order to see success. Without a formalized vision, mission, values, its pretty hard to inspire people.

Edmonds teaches that an organization with a good culture is one where employees feel respected and validated. Doing cuts of 50% or more, thats not going to feel very respectful to those that were cut, but its also not going to feel respectful to the survivors, he said. Bridges agrees, saying top talent today doesnt seek a workplace that has an uncertain future or a sense of fear on a day-to-day basis because it ultimately doesnt allow them to thrive. Most companies today are on the flip side and ask their employees what they want and need to ensure their success at a company and often prioritize wellbeing more than ever before. For many of those folks, they might only stay as long as it takes for them to find their next job at a company that truly values them, said Bridges. People shouldnt be treated like commodities because it dehumanizes the workplace.

At the end of the day, the remaining employees will either have to choose to adapt to the new company culture or to leave entirely. Its something that anyone needs to decide when experiencing a leadership change at the top, however much more amplified with Twitter and Musk. Additionally, when there is a leadership change, its more common for that individual to take the first couple of months to get to know how employees have been operating, what they wish would be different, and make an overall assessment before conducting major changes.

A leader signals what they value, said Bridges. If they value facetime and results, no matter how those results are achieved, thats the behavior that is going to be rewarded. If a leader shows they value not just the end result, but how it was achieved, like risk taking, wins, failures, inclusivity, then employees will focus on exemplifying those behaviors. Either way, she says that the company culture should be identified sooner rather than later so that employees can decide if its somewhere they want to be. Source: Callahan, 2022

QUESTION ONE [30]

Analyse the article above and assess the impact of the change in Twitters culture on

1.1 employee motivation, and

1.2 organisational performance.

QUESTION TWO [20]

A leader signals what they value, said Bridges. If they value facetime and results, no matter how those results are achieved, thats the behavior that is going to be rewarded. If a leader shows they value not just the end result, but how it was achieved, like risk taking, wins, failures, inclusivity, then employees will focus on exemplifying those behaviours. Evaluate the validity of the statement above in context of Twitter.