Elon Musk told reporters he’s not worried about Twitter employees leaving the company over his proposed takeover.
Musk was asked about a potential exodus of employees while on the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, Reuters reported.
“It’s a free country,” Musk responded, per Reuters.
“Certainly if anyone doesn’t feel comfortable with that, they will on their on accord, go somewhere else. That’s fine,” he added, Reuters reported.
Twitter said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday that one of the risks associated with Musk’s planned acquisition was a potential loss of staff.
“We may experience a departure of employees, prior to the closing of the merger,” Twitter wrote in the filing.
A former Twitter executive told Insider’s Kali Hays since news of Musk’s acquisition broke they were being contacted daily by Twitter employees asking about job opportunities.
“Any sense that an exodus is building is correct,” the former executive said.
Three current employees told Hays there is relatively open talk inside the company about looking for new work because of Musk.
“It’s all about Elon,” one employee said. “There will be some sort of exodus event from those who do not approve of him.”
The Twitter employees told Hays there is unease about Musk’s publicly stated desire to loosen the platform’s rules on content moderation a move which experts told Insider could lead to an uptick in hate speech and misinformation.
They also said Musk’s reputation as a workaholic was a factor.
A smaller Twitter workforce may not be that worrying to Musk. Sources told The Washington Post and Bloomberg that Musk proposed job cuts as a way to boost Twitter’s bottom line in conversations with potential lender banks when he was shoring up financing for his bid.
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