Elon Musk tells Twitter employees bankruptcy isn't out of the question, bans remote work

wastes no time reviewing when acquiring the business.

In a leaked email — sent aggressively around 2:30 a.m. local time Thursday, Musk addressed employees and said remote work would no longer be an option and that he expected more than 40 hours per week in the office, except for those with exceptions that Musk has to approve.

"Frankly, the economic situation ahead is dire," Musk wrote. "The road ahead is arduous and will require hard work to succeed."

Musk's outlook was bleak, even reportedly telling employees Thursday that bankruptcy wasn't out of the question, Reuters said.

In his email, Musk continued to emphasize the importance of increasing Twitter Blue subscriptions, his new policy that the platform charges users a monthly fee of $7.99 in order to view a blue tick next to their name, something any user can buy without verifying their identity.

To counter this, Musk introduced the concept of gray checkmarks, a way to visually verify users, companies, and high-profile news outlets and deem them "official," which couldn't be bought.

But as quickly as he introduced the concept of gray checkmarks, he removed them.

Pro ultimate frisbee player Marques Brownlee noticed around 11:30 a.m. EST Wednesday that the gray tiles had been removed, prompting a response from Musk.

“I killed him,” Musk wrote bluntly. "The blue check will be the great leveler."

Musk then took to his own account separately to warn that this wouldn't be the last time he and Twitter would add and remove new features on the platform.

Musk's plan to make Twitter a private company officially came to fruition on Tuesday when the platform was officially delisted from the NYSE.

Since Musk's takeover began in late October, there have been a series of changes (including the check mark fiasco) and more are coming every day.

One high-profile user who wasn't amused by Musk's tick plan was author Stephen King, for example, an avid Twitter user with 6.9 million followers.

Last week, after weeks of rumors, Musk instigated massive layoffs at the company, emptying 50% of the company's total workforce. In India alone, an estimated 90% of Twitter's total workforce has been cut, leaving only a dozen workers in the country.

Internal posts on Twitter's internal slack channel revealed that Twitter's top security officials resigned on Wednesday evening, sparking "deep concern" from the Federal Trade Commission that the platform form would inevitably violate regulatory orders.

On Friday, Shennan Lu, an employee who was fired (and is six months pregnant), allegedly sued the company for "discrimination", threatening to sue Twitter and Musk.

“There is definitely discrimination here, so I will fight back. My performance has improved (top 30%) over the last few quarters, and I know for a fact that other male managers don't have that rating , they stayed," she wrote on Twitter. "See you in court."

Another former employee came forward this week alleging he was fired for helping to create and distribute a tool that would help employees save valuable work documents and export them in the event of a layoff .

Software engineer Emmanuel Cornet has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming he was fired the same day he posted the link to the extension on Twitter's internal channel. After being released, the link was removed from the messaging system.

Other former employees have reportedly been asked to return to work, according to Bloomberg, with some former workers alleging they were told they were fired in error. Others were told that their previous work experience would be needed to advance Musk's master plan for reinventing the site.

Yet amid Musk's questionable leadership decisions, usage and engagement on the social media platform is said to be on the rise.

Business Insider reports that app downloads increased 28% month over month from October to November, and 46% from September to November.

On November 6, just days after the announcement of Musk's massive layoff...