A large number of Twitter employees resigned

After Twitter's new boss Elon Musk issued an ultimatum, a new wave of Twitter employees posted a goodbye on Thursday. Musk previously asked employees to either accept a hardcore culture of long hours and intense work or resign.

Over the past day, many Twitter employees have been weighing their options. They woke up Wednesday to an overnight email. Musk told them in the email that they had until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday to fill out a form indicating whether they wanted to stay with the company and accept an "extremely hardcore" work culture. Employees who do not accept will be fired and will receive three months of severance pay. Musk has laid off about half of Twitter's workforce since taking over.

Some employees said they doubted many colleagues would accept Musk's offer to leave the company, but they were not sure how many. In a group of about 60 employees, about 50% to 75% told colleagues they planned to leave, one person said Thursday morning. Still, some said other employees planned to stay, including for financial reasons or because they were curious about the company's new direction.

People familiar with the matter said that far more employees than Musk expected to reject this hardcore work culture could put Twitter's operations at risk. Twitter's internal communication channels are flooded with employees posting saluting emojis, which have become emblematic of leaving the company.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor attorney in Brookline, Mass., said she spent all day Wednesday taking calls from Twitter employees who had been on the phone after Musk delivered the ultimatum overnight. Want to be clear about your rights. Lairden has filed three lawsuits against Twitter on behalf of departing employees.