Elon Musk forced to make dramatic U-turn on ‘hardcore’ ultimatum as hundreds of Twitter staff quit

It's all going down at Twitter HQ.

Twitter has told employees that the company's office buildings will be temporarily closed, effective immediately. Workers were told that the offices would reopen on Monday 21 November, BBC reports. It did not give a reason for the move. The announcement comes amid reports that large numbers of staff were quitting after new owner Elon Musk called on them to sign up for "long hours at high intensity" or leave. https://twitter.com/JoshuaPHilll/status/1593432939127361542 The message went on to say: "Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere." This week Mr Musk told Twitter staff that they had to commit to working long hours and would "need to be extremely hardcore" or leave the company, according to reports. In an email to staff, the firm's new owner said workers should agree to the pledge if they wanted to stay, the Washington Post reported. Those who did not sign up by Thursday 17 November would be given three months' severance pay, Mr Musk said. The Independent reports that Musk appeared to soften his stance on remote work for Twitter employees after a backlash to his “extremely hardcore” ultimatum. [caption id="attachment_332427" align="alignnone" width="640"] Is Twitter dead? (Picture: Getty Images)[/caption] But with some staff opting to exit the San Francisco-based company rather than accept Musk’s new demands he appeared to alter his approach to employees working from home, reported CNN. Earlier this month the company said that it was cutting around 50% of its workforce. The recent announcement that Twitter had temporarily closed its offices came amid signs that large numbers of workers have now also resigned as they have not accepted Mr Musk's new terms. Employees have been tweeting using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked and a saluting emoji to show they were leaving the firm. One former Twitter worker who wished to remain anonymous told the BBC: "I think when the dust clears today, there's probably going to be less than 2,000 people left." They added that everyone in their team had been terminated. "The manager of that team, his manager was terminated. And then that manager's manager was terminated. The person above that was one of the execs terminated on the first day. So there's nobody left in that chain of command." Before Mr Musk took control of Twitter the company had around 7,500 staff. The firm was also reported to have employed thousands of contract workers, the majority of which are understood to have been laid off. This comes days after Musk claimed to be sleeping at the Twitter HQ and working 'day and night' to handle and manage his takeover. Has it been worth the sleepless nights?