Twitter Takeover: CEO Parag Agrawal Faces Employees' Wrath, Tries To Quell Concerns At Company Meeting

Agrawal cautioned staff to expect change in the future under new leadership, and acknowledged that the company could have performed better over the years.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal

Source : Photo/IIT Bombay Twitter

New Delhi: Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal, who addressed the employees at a company-wide meeting on Friday, was faced with a flurry of questions demanding answers as to how the management plans to handle the expected mass exodus triggered by Elon Musk acquisition.

Agrawal was trying to ease concerns of the employees in a meeting that comes after the Tesla chief executive announced a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company. Musk has been vocal about Twitter's content moderation practices and criticised a top executive responsible for setting speech and safety policies.

At the meeting, executives pointed out that the company would monitor staff attrition daily, but there was no clarity on how the buyout deal with Musk would affect staff retention, reported news agency Reuters based on their sources.

Agrawal asked staff to expect a change in the future under new leadership, and acknowledged that the company could have performed better over the years. "Yes, we could have done things differently and better. I could have done things differently. I think about that a lot," he said, as reported by Reuters.

Musk has gone ahead and approached lenders on slashing board and executive salaries, but exact cost cuts remain unclear, according to the agency sources.  While Musk may not take any decision regarding job cuts until he assumes ownership of Twitter, mentioned another source.

Employees allay fears

"I'm tired of hearing about shareholder value and fiduciary duty. What are your honest thoughts about the very high likelihood that many employees will not have jobs after the deal closes?" asked one of the employees to Agrawal during the meeting.

Responding to the concern, Agrawal said Twitter has always cared about its employees and would continue to do so.

"I believe the future Twitter organisation will continue to care about its impact on the world and its customers," he said, as reported by Reuters. Executives also noted that the employee attrition rate didn’t change compared to the levels before the news came about Musk eying to buy the company.

Employees also raised concerns to executives saying they feared Musk's erratic behavior could hamper the company’s business, and may impact it financially as employees prepare to address the advertising world in a presentation next week in New York City.

"Do we have a strategy in the near-term on how to handle advertisers pulling investment," questioned one of the employees.

Quelling the concerns of employees, Sarah Personette, Twitter's chief customer officer, said the company was working to communicate frequently with advertisers and reassure them "the way that we service our customers is not changing." One of the Twitter employee believes there was little trust in what executives had to say.

"The PR speak is not landing. They told us don't leak and do a job you are proud of, but there is no clear incentive for employees to do this," the employee told the news agency reuters, hinting that the compensation for non-executive staffers is now capped because of the deal.