How to Protect Your Talent Brand During Layoffs According to PR Pros: Lessons from Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover
When Elon Musk took over social media giant Twitter, there was no way to predict what would play out. While we’ve had our fun watching the results of early experiments (Twitter Blue) and the media circus tracking a CEO determined to shake things, a sadder story has been unfolding behind the scenes.
No matter how we feel about Musk, Twitter, or even social media in general, there are real people running the platform whose story has been watered down in a sea of memes, parody accounts, jokes, bots, and trolls.
We talked to several PR industry leaders and other experts to comment on Musk’s handling of the Twitter workforce so far:
The Quick Backstory
After months of public statements, negotiations, and attempted taksies backsies, Musk closed the $44 billion deal in late-October to purchase Twitter. After that, he immediately started making sweeping changes to the platform and the workforce.
By mid-November, Musk had fired about half of Twitter’s workforce, totaling 3,700 people. In response, hundreds of remaining workers quit, including the head of integrity and safety, the chief information security officer, and the chief privacy officer.
The Early Chaos
Musk conducted these layoffs in a way that was guaranteed to make headlines, and not in a good way. In early November, employees first got a company-wide email informing them that if they were fired, they would get another email.
From this point, the stories of how each worker discovered their fate vary. Some received the promised email, while others couldn’t log into their email and were left to assume. One group camped out in their office waiting for the news.
All Twitter offices were closed worldwide the weekend of November 4, and no one was allowed entry. Before the start of business Monday morning, a number of fired workers were asked to come back. Their firing was a mistake.
Ex-employee Manu Cornet published his Twitter firing story in The Economist. An engineer with 14 years experience working at Google, he chose to go to Twitter.
When Cornet was fired, he was logged out of a video call with no warning. He lost access to his email, then his laptop. He assumed someone had hacked his computer. Shortly after, he got a call from the person he called his “boss’s boss,” informing him he was fired. His direct boss, the boss who called him, and several levels up were soon fired, too.
“The sheer percentage of the workforce that was laid off and how it was handled was a shock,” said Tamara Sykes, Digital PR + SEO Strategist for Next Level Presence and one of the hosts of the popular #PRLunchHour on Twitter Spaces. “The departing employees didn't receive a conversation or memo; they experienced an abrupt end by realizing they were locked out of their computers. Elon's attempt to rehire some laid-off team members a few days later also showed a lack of strategy on his part.”
We got the perspective of Lauren Pasquarella Daley, leader of the Women and the Future of Work Initiative at Catalyst. “Faced with current and expected talent shortages, shifting employee expectations about life and work, and high uncertainty during disruption and rapid change, companies and leaders who build people-first workplaces will emerge as talent magnets now and into the future of work,” said Pasquarella Daley.
She explained the importance of industry leaders developing “human skills like empathy and adaptability in this new era of work.” This is how they can “create the foundation for employees to contribute, belong, and thrive regardless of schedule or location.”
Sykes doesn’t think Musk is interested in such things, and she empathizes with the affected workers from her own experience. “Elon Musk's unapologetic and tactless approach has been jarring as a PR professional and personally triggering since I've experienced layoffs before.”
Ramifications
Layoffs in the tech field are nothing new, and other tech giants like Google and Meta have cut their workforces this year. And while tech layoffs in general have been criticized for setting back diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts, the setbacks at Twitter have come with something big companies never want to see – lawsuits.
The legal ramifications have been huge so far, and the hits just keep on coming. First, ex-employees announced legal action for not receiving severance they were promised, accusing Twitter of breach of contract.
The most recent filing as of this writing is a lawsuit for workplace sex discrimination since Musk laid off 57% of the women who worked for Twitter and 47% of men.
As more lawsuits are filed, Twitter could have to pay millions in legal fees alone. Just one case could cost upward of $100,000.
“The best practices for handling layoffs are largely about protecting the company's brand and ability to hire top talent in the future,” said Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP of Strategy and Growth for Resume Worded. “This means being transparent about why these layoffs are taking place, as well as providing resources for employees who may need help finding new jobs or transitioning out of their current position.”
Failing to protect your employer brand
Shortly after the deal went through, Musk fired almost everyone on the communications team, leaving just one person to run the shop. He eliminated the people who protect a company’s reputation during layoffs.
It’s hard to know what the narrative would have been if a PR team had remained in place, but what did manage to get to the media has not been flattering.
According to The New York Times, Musk fired people who spoke out against him and those who were “insubordinate,” based on comments they made on the company’s internal messaging platform. Apparently, Musk put a team in charge of searching the platform and Twitter for anything he didn’t like. When the critics were found, they were given the boot.
Let’s Get Hardcore
In mid-November, the remaining employees received an email around midnight from Musk announcing the new “extremely hardcore” Twitter.
Workers were given an ultimatum to become “hardcore” and join “Twitter 2.0” or to leave with severance. Musk described the new Twitter as a place with very little work-life balance and an emphasis on long, intense hours.
A few weeks later, employees came in to find makeshift bedrooms set up around the office with no explanation.
This “hardcore” mindset is the opposite of where Pasquarella Daley believes the future of work is headed. “The changes instituted at Twitter reflected a lack of both leader empathy and adaptability – two leadership skills identified in Catalyst research as critical for success in the future of work,” she said. “When leaders demonstrate high levels of empathy and adaptability together, their employees report higher experiences of inclusion, wellbeing, and intent to stay in their organizations, and they also report decreased experiences of burnout, sleep issues, and disengagement.”
A different approach
Companies can learn a lot from the Twitter experience.
Sykes notes layoffs by payment platform Stripe, which happened around the same time Musk started firing Twitter employees. “The CEO, Patrick Collison, sent a memo to the entire staff that explained why the layoffs were happening while taking responsibility and not centering himself in the conversation,” said Sykes. “He also outlined how the laid-off employees would be compensated in every imaginable context.”
Compensation included at least 14 weeks of severance pay, their promised 2022 bonus, paid out PTO, and six months of continued healthcare.
Another example of layoffs handled the right way comes from Scoop, a company that started as a carpool platform for workers in 2015. Founded by brothers Rob and Jon Sadow, they had raised more than $100 million by the start of the pandemic. But the 2020 lockdowns changed everything. No one was going to work, so no one needed to carpool.
To keep the company afloat, the brothers pivoted their business to helping companies adapt for a future hybrid workplace. The strategy worked, but by the end of 2020, they had to lay off 85% of their employees, about 200 people.
They sought advice from business mentors with more experience in this tough area. They prioritized respect and transparency with those being let go and the employees who stayed behind. Layoffs were handled in one-on-one meetings with managers, and all workers were offered generous severance packages that prioritized access to health care for as long as possible. Laid off workers were allowed to stay on Slack for 24 hours to say goodbye, and they were given access to a networking document with job leads and contacts.
After the last round of layoffs, the company was closed for two days to allow the remaining workers to emotionally recover. This was an important step to retain the type of company culture the brothers had fostered and didn’t want to lose.
Debbie Elicksen, a digital PR expert who specializes in helping companies humanize their brands, has been on all sides of the layoff debate – she’s been let go, been the person who has to let someone go, and helped companies manage their brand around this issue.
“Treating people like humans is the right way to handle layoffs, not by group Zoom or by group email,” said Elicksen. “If you treat people like crap, why would anyone want to work for you? ”
Jennifer Johnson is a writer and researcher who works primarily in career services, recruiting, content development, and PR. But she's been known to take on any project that piques her interest.
ABOUT UNCUBED STUDIOS
Launched in 2016, Uncubed Studios is a full-service creative agency with a client list representing the most influential employers on earth along with the high growth tech companies.
The team that brings the work of Uncubed Studios to life is made up of award-winning experts in cinematography, journalism, production, recruitment, employee engagement, employer branding and more.
Interested in speaking with Uncubed Studios? Email us at studios@uncubed.com
