--- title: "Twitter Employees Kept Posting Jokes Until the Moment They Got Fired" description: "The culling at Twitter has begun with many employees resorting to posting jokes on the platform right up until they were summarily cut off from work access." date: "2022-11-04" modified: "2022-11-04" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-employees-posting-jokes-fired" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "elon musk" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Twitter Employees Kept Posting Jokes Until the Moment They Got Fired ![The culling at Twitter has begun with many employees resorting to posting jokes on the platform right up until they were summarily cut off from work access.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Mass Layoffs It's a dark day for Twitter employees. The culling has begun, with many employees resorting to posting jokes on the platform right up until they were summarily cut off from company platforms. Newly self-anointed Twitter CEO and "Chief Twit" Elon Musk has [started laying off employees]() at the company in droves. A companywide email made its rounds late Thursday night, warning employees to not return to the office on Friday. While we still don't know the full extent of the layoffs, we do know that managers made very little effort to give affected employees a heads up — or even give them a respectful send-off. ## Red Wedding The unceremonious culling appears to have taken place over email exclusively, with *The Washington Post* referring to Musk's new management style as "[Trump-like]()." Twitter employees chose to find solace in gallows humor, posting jokes about their impending termination. "Has the red wedding started?" an unnamed employee wrote on Slack, as [quoted by *The New York Times*](), referring to a massacre in "Game of Thrones." Laid off Twitter employees were immediately locked out of their accounts and had their badges inactivated, an apparent effort to ensure that no sensitive information leaked. Former employee Rachel Bonn, for instance, who is eight months pregnant, was laid off and [had her laptop access cut off](). ## Class Action The abrupt mass layoff will likely have legal repercussions. A class-action lawsuit has already been filed in federal court in San Francisco, the *NYT* reports, by employees who say they weren't given enough notice. According to California employment attorney Lisa Bloom, employees may [also be entitled]() to "receive back pay at the employee's final rate or three-year average of compensation, whichever is higher," under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. "This flagrant violation of workers' rights is outrageous," Bloom added. "Who's in for a class action? LET'S DO THIS." **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk Begins Layoffs at Twitter]() \[*The New York Times*\] ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()