- Some former Twitter employees say the company hasn’t collected their work laptops, Wired reported.
- One ex-worker told the publication his laptop was digitally locked and is sitting in his closet.
- Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, has been trying to reduce the company’s operating costs.
Multiple laid-off Twitter employees said the company has yet to collect their work laptops, prompting confusion and fear of legal problems.
Eric Frohnhoefer, a former Twitter software engineer who was fired in November, told Wired he had not heard anything from the company about returning his work computer.
He told the publication that the Apple MacBook Pro had been sitting in his closet since it was digitally locked after his employment was terminated. “I’m happy letting it sit there and be a brick,” he said.
Two other former Twitter employees told Wired they still had their work laptops, but were worried keeping them could lead to further delays with severance or even legal trouble. Laid-off Twitter employees received severance agreements from Twitter earlier this month after waiting for two months.
Wired reported that other former Twitter employees said they had received emails asking them to fill out a “Twitter Device Collection Survey” in the last few days.
Wired reported it had seen the survey and that it said company phones, laptop chargers, badges, authentication tokens, and corporate credit cards could be returned. Monitors and other computer equipment did not need to be collected and the document did not make clear what workers should do with laptops, Wired reported, citing the survey.
Representatives for Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside normal working hours.
Elon Musk has been drastically trying to reduce the company’s operating costs since he bought the platform in October. Soon after his $44 billion takeover, the billionaire abruptly slashed Twitter’s headcount by around half and has been conducting rolling layoffs since then.
The company is also behind on rent payments for its San Francisco and London offices, and has been auctioning off company property to raise funds.