Elon Musk’s X laid off more people recently and delayed promotions, says report

UPDATED: Jun 14, 2024 10:24 IST

Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter (now called X), there have been numerous rounds of layoffs that were carried out at the company. The platform has also gone through major changes and is no longer what it used to be. A year back, Linda Yaccarino was appointed as the CEO of X and took charge on June 5. Since then, Yaccarino has made headlines time and again. According to a report in The Verge, Yaccarino encouraged employees to promote Musk's recent venture x.AI but didn't talk much about X's advertising business performance during a recent all-hands meeting. The report also added that several people at X had been laid off recently and their performance review process had also been delayed.

The Verge report says that employees wanted to know about the company’s performance reviews amid growing concerns during a recent meeting. The promotions process at X, as per the report, has been delayed without explanation. In addition to this, X’s sales team is not expecting to meet its revenue targets for the quarter, according to insiders. Moreover, a source at X also told the publication that the company had also laid off a "handful" of people recently.

Sources also told The Verge that Steve Davis, CEO of The Boring Company and one of Musk’s close associates, has been scrutinising the finances at X's San Francisco headquarters for several weeks. This caused further anxiety amongst the staff.

In such a scenario, employees wanted more clarity about the company's performance review process as well as the business performance of X during the all-hands meeting led by the X CEO. However, The Verge says that the employees didn't hear enough about these points.

The report added that Walter Gilbert, head of HR at X, announced plans for a broader and more robust promotions process, which will include regular check-ins throughout the year. Despite this, many employees felt their pressing questions regarding HR, promotions, and compensation were left unanswered. In addition to this, Musk was absent from the meeting, although he was reportedly in San Francisco along with Yaccarino.

Another report by The New York Times revealed that even though Yaccarino talked about X's advertising business, she did not share an "updates sales figures".

Yaccarino reportedly told employees that X saw 65 percent of advertisers returning to the platform. However, sources told The New York Times that the return of advertisers doesn't necessarily mean a revenue increase.

"Hundreds of client meetings will happen, and many moments will take place where we get to showcase X. Our customers are cheering us on, and they’re excited and in awe of all the progress that we’re making," Yaccarino said as per the New York Times report.