Recruits have also fretted that the shares included in their offer letters could quickly become devalued if Mr. Musk took Twitter private.
Twitter’s recruiting problem could balloon further if current employees quit, as some have warned they would do if Mr. Musk took over. Other employees worried about layoffs or the loss of work visas under Mr. Musk, and raised questions about these issues with Mr. Agrawal.
Managers responsible for hiring have been asked to keep track of how many prospective employees turn down job offers because of fears about Mr. Musk, according to internal communications reviewed by The Times.
Employees have also wondered: Could he also move Twitter’s headquarters to Texas, as he did with Tesla? Could he end the company’s flexibility about returning to the office, which has become a selling point for employees and recruits? Mr. Musk, after all, fought with officials in California to keep his car factory open early in the pandemic.
Mr. Agrawal tried to calm his work force. In the question-and-answer session on Monday, he urged employees to “operate Twitter as we always have,” adding that “how we run the company, the decisions we make, and the positive changes we drive — that will be on us, and under our control.”
The stress at the mention of Mr. Musk is a stark contrast to the welcome he enjoyed from employees two years ago. Although some employees at the event in 2020 said they were skeptical of Mr. Musk, many of them listened attentively as he gave his advice for Twitter: The company should step up its moderation, he said, by doing more to weed out bots and scammers from the actual humans using the platform.
“By the way, do you want to run Twitter?” Mr. Dorsey asked Mr. Musk.
The assembled Twitter employees laughed. Mr. Musk did not immediately answer.
Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac contributed reporting.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/technology/twitter-employees-elon-musk.html
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