Read the email Twitter contractors were sent on Saturday telling them they'd lost their jobs
Contractors working at Twitter lost access to company systems on Saturday night.
Shortly after, they got an email notifying them that they were laid off, two sources told Insider.
Twitter contractors were told in the email it was due to a "reprioritization and savings exercise."
Some Twitter contractors realised they'd been laid off when they lost access to their work email and Slack accounts on Saturday night, two sources told Insider.
The news was first reported by Axios.
The laid-off contractors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider they did not receive the email until after they realized they'd been locked out of their accounts on Saturday night.
The Twitter workers, employed by Surya Systems, received an email notifying them that they lost their jobs about an hour later, the sources said, adding that those affected worked in content moderation and engineering.
The contractors were told that their assignment at Twitter had ended due to a "reprioritization and savings exercise" and that their last day at the company was Monday. The email notified them that their badge and system access was "shut off immediately."
Twitter and Surya Systems did not reply to a request for comment from Insider made outside normal working hours.
"I don't understand how they didn't learn from their previous week's debacle of laying off full-time employees without telling them," one worker told Insider. "It might not seem like a big deal, but I don't think it's appropriate to treat employees like this (again)."
Elon Musk took control of Twitter late last month and had laid off about half its full-time employees by November 4. Like the contractors, staff members also realized they lost their job when they were locked out of their Slack and email accounts.
Read the full email that Twitter contractors received notifying them that they were laid off:
As you may be aware of, Twitter has conducted a reprioritization and saving exercise in an effort to better focus during this period of resource constraints.
Please allow this communication to serve as notice on behalf of your employer on record that your assignment at Twitter has ended as part of the reprioritization and savings exercise.
In order to maintain Twitter confidential information and for security reasons, your system and badge access will be shut off immediately.
Your last day at Twitter will be Monday, November 14th. You will not be expected to perform any services on November 14th. You will receive your final pay from November 7th through November 14th. Please ensure that any time cards and expenses that are outstanding are submitted into Magnit VMS immediately.
As a reminder, you have signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement; please remember that all intellectual property information associated with your assignment, business practices, or your specific project is strictly confidential during and after your Contract.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your employer Surya Systems, Inc.
Thank you for your service to Twitter,
Magnit Team
Twitter began firing contractors on Saturday, according to reports.
Some contractors told Axios they found out after being locked out of work accounts.
Contractors also shared fears that they would not be able to receive their final paychecks.
Twitter has began to lay off its contract workforce, with some contractors finding out through a loss of access to work accounts, according to reports.
Starting on Nov. 4, Twitter — under the new ownership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk — slashed its full-time employee workforce by nearly 50%.
Now, contractors appear to be the next target, with contractors telling Axios they were locked out of work accounts on Saturday. Similarly, many of Twitter's full-time employees also found out that they were being let go when they lost access to work platforms like Slack and email.
Some of these contractors work in content moderation, which had already been hit with layoffs, sources told Axios.
According to journalist Casey Newton, other departments, such as real estate and marketing, were also affected by contractor layoffs.
Some contractors told Axios they were worried about whether or not they would be able to receive their final paycheck, as many ended up on teams with no full-time employees following the layoffs.
Melissa Ingle, a content moderation contractor, told Axios that she was worried about how the layoffs would affect her and her family financially.
"This is no way to treat people," Ingle told Axios.
Following Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company staff has been thrown into weeks of chaos.
Some laid-off Twitter staff were asked to come back after the company realized that they were essential to operations. Other Twitter staff filed a lawsuit, saying they were not given enough advance notice before their firings.
Now, employees are being asked by Musk to return to the office 40 hours a week or resign.
One current Twitter employee described the current environment as "ruthless" in an as-told-to essay by Insider's Jyoti Mann.
Twitter and representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
A Twitter manager says laid-off engineers he's rehired are 'weak, lazy, unmotivated'
A Twitter manager described laid-off engineers he rehired as "weak, lazy, unmotivated."
A screenshot of what appeared to be Slack messages has circulated on the Blind app.
A source confirmed the manager worked for Twitter and said his comments sparked much internal debate.
A Twitter manager who rehired engineers after they lost their jobs in the recent mass layoffs appeared to criticize them on the company's internal messaging system.
A screenshot of the comments made by the senior director of engineering were posted by another Twitter worker on the anonymous forum Blind. They read: "This is going to be the challenge. The engineers I am bringing back are weak, lazy, unmotivated, and they may even be against an Elon Twitter."
"They were cut for a reason, so we need to think of these people as just needing to be around until the knowledge transition is completed," the manager continued.
A source at Twitter who spoke on condition on anonymity confirmed the manager's identity to Insider. The individual's LinkedIn profile showed that they had worked for Twitter since 2013.
The manager has been contacted for comment by Insider.
The comments have sparked much internal debate on Slack, according to Insider's source.
A screenshot of the messages also circulated online, which was also shared by data journalist Joshua Byrd.
The managing editor of the tech-and-democracy focused newsletter Platformer, Zoë Schiffer, tweeted that she had confirmed the manager did work at Twitter but later deleted her tweet saying: "I don't think naming someone at his level is necessary (not because the screenshot isn't real)."
Insider also surveyed Blind, a forum where employees can hold anonymous conversations, and found a post asking users whether they thought Elon Musk would take action following the manager's comments.
Of 157 responses, 60 thought Musk would promote the manager, 56 thought he would do nothing and 41 said he would fire the individual.
Musk fired half Twitter's workforce after taking control, but a few days later some employees were already been asked to come back.
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