Twitter is in an ongoing legal battle with Elon Musk.
As a result of confusion in the company, many employees are leaving.
Find out how the company is dealing with attriton.
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Social media giant Twitter has made more headlines than usual of late. Since business magnate Elon Musk declared his desire to purchase the company, Twitter has been grappling with challenges from both a business and a HR perspective.
Firstly, employees began to voice concerns about Musk and his sometimes controversial views, including a desire to ban remote working and his denial that COVID-19 would impact the US early on in the pandemic.
These concerns may have been eased as his deal to purchase Twitter fell through, but the company is now dealing with an “absurd high” attrition issue, according to employees.
Why are Twitter employees leaving?
One current employee (who asked to remain anonymous) told Insider: “I’m just mentally exhausted.”
This employee cited the media attention around Musk’s proposed purchase of Twitter, as well as the subsequent legal battle as a motivation to look for work elsewhere.
Another employee said to Insider that they had lost respect for leadership because of how they handled the situation.
The acquisition saga has been a major challenge for CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over the role from co-founder Jack Dorsey at the end of 2021. A former employee said: “The general consensus among the majority of us is they’re [leadership are] doing a poor job.”
Many cited a lack of information about the takeover and the changing circumstances at the company as reasons for feeling unsettled. On top of that, the company has announced hiring freezes and layoffs.
One former employee noted that: “So many people have left they won’t even need to do more layoffs.”
During the changes at Twitter, the company has begun capturing data about who has left the company because of Musk’s proposed acquisition.
The company now includes the following categories for attrition: “Voluntary: regret pending merger and acquisition (M&A)” and “Voluntary: non regret pending M&A.”
In these categories, regret means that Twitter would have liked to have kept the employee while “non regret” suggests that the company was prepared to see the team member leave.
Despite employee complaints, not everyone in Twitter is looking at the door. One employee explained to Insider that the tech job market is not as fruitful as many would like at the moment, and there are stock considerations.
In a statement about attrition, a Twitter spokesperson told the Financial Times: “Attrition is slightly higher than best practice for normal macroeconomic times,” but emphasized that it “remains in line with current industry trends.”
