20 Rules All Twitter Employees Must Follow

Elon Musk wasn't playing around with his set of rules

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It's safe to say that everyone was shocked and in awe when Elon Musk decided to (somewhat) spontaneously buy Twitter in 2022 for an astounding $44 billion. We can't help but think that potentially part of it was down to Musk's own interest in the social media app where he consistently posts tweets. After buying the app, Musk decided to tweet the phrase "the bird is freed," in response to the increase in limitations that Twitter imposed upon its users shortly before. It didn't take long before Musk was compounding his list of hardline rules.

He likes to remain consistent with his rules

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Musk has been in the spotlight many times before for various reasons, but one of the most prevalent was probably how he decided to fire a massive chunk of the workforce as soon as he got to Twitter with no explanation as to why. He also decided to carry over the rules he imposed at Tesla and at SpaceX, given that he probably thought this was his formula for a "successful" company. The rules, which some find bizarre, are now gospel to Twitter's employees and should be followed like the ten commandments.

No more remote working...

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First things first; Musk wasted no time in reversing the new rules and regulations that had come into play as a result of COVID-19. He first did this back in June 2022 with his other company, Tesla, where he sent a company-wide email demanding that the team ought to return to the office for in-person work. It's thought and believed that Musk will carry these rules over from his other companies given how he likes to govern and control his assets. It's safe to say that Twitter employees are in for a ride.

...and spend at least 40 hours at the office!

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Following on from before, not only has Musk demanded that workers return to the office (despite productivity not decreasing from home), he also stated that if any employees wished to still commit to remote work, then they must also commit to 40 hours per week in the office! Where is the time to do the remote work in a 40 hour week? He stated that it was less than what they ask of the Tesla factory workers. It seems that Twitter won't be far behind Tesla with these strict rules and could see many people leave.

The chain of command isn't important

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Musk is determined to make people realize that the chain of command is nothing but extra levels of bureaucracy. He encourages staff to not talk to other colleagues via their supervisors or managers, and that the faster they can work and communicate, they are generating a competitive advantage. It's probably one of the lesser strange rules that Musk has concocted, and we can kinda see the reasons for why he's introduced this one. Managers are sometimes just there for line manager reasons, and that's it!

Big meetings are a no-no

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If there's one thing you should know about Musk, it's his hatred for big meetings. He sees them as a waste of energy and also a waste of a lot of people's time. He expresses that people in large meetings feel guarded, not everybody gets chance to contribute to the meeting, and they also discourage much-needed debate. He has a point, but sometimes meetings are there to inform people of changes, new material etc., and allow for the floor to be opened up for questions which then may in turn help others.

Frequent meetings are also not warranted...

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Not only does Musk hate big meetings, he hates frequent ones too. He's very much a believer in that if the meeting could happen over email, then it should, considering that meetings aren't a great use of someone's time, especially if they're not going to contribute to the meeting itself. I can imagine it's been hard for Twitter staff to come to terms with the new rules that Musk has imposed upon them, but it's hard to see how they have much choice or say in the matter. Maybe they've been throwing secret meetings!

...unless under extreme circumstances

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It's safe to say that Musk is only happy with a meeting if there's a genuine, urgent reason for it. In an email he sent out to Tesla employees in 2018, he advised that his employees get rid of frequent meetings, unless the matter at hand was of extreme importance. He then went on to say that the meeting frequency should drop when the matter at hand was resolved. He also suggested that all large meetings were eradicated, unless the hosts were certain that they provided value to the whole audience.

If you're not adding value to the meeting, just leave

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Musk has been relatively open with his employees about meetings, and has told them directly to leave a meeting if they don't feel that they are adding value and are gaining anything from being there. He stated that if the employee is adding no input and making no decisions, and not gaining any new or useful information from being in the meeting, then they should just leave. He expressed that it's not rude to leave a meeting, but it is rude to waste people's time, which I guess is a fair point!

All teams must take Musk's own opinion into account

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One thing that's a must for Musk is his involvement in important Twitter decisions. He openly admitted in one of the first leadership meetings at Twitter that he wasn't sure what he wants the company to look like under his leadership. However, he did seem keen to be involved in all kinds of areas of the product and expects that the staff at Twitter will listen to his ideas and suggestions for new features. A particular feature that Musk has been keen for is an "edit tweet" button for users who are prone to typos.

You can wave goodbye to the free food

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For those of you who work in offices, you know that sometimes there might be free cold and hot drinks and snacks in the cupboard. Occasionally, the managers might buy pizza to treat the team on a Friday or payday at the end of the month. It's a great way of boosting the morale of your team, rewarding your staff for their hard-work and ensuring that everyone has the right "brain food" at work for their productivity. Unfortunately, Musk cut this benefit for all Twitter staff as soon as he took over the company.

There goes the other free perks too!

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Not only was the free food a perk that Musk eradicated, it's been said that there were other perks and benefits that were also cut from Twitter's benefit package. Although the details aren't clear, it's probably worthwhile guessing that there was some kind of gym/leisure center benefit, an annual bonus, discounts at shops/restaurants. Musk recognized the financial scrutiny that Twitter was under as soon as he stepped up as CEO, therefore knew that there were areas that need to be cut back on.

No technical jargon while at Twitter please!

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One of the biggest productivity and efficiency rules that Musk had at Tesla was his rules on language and use of language. In his letter to the employees, he stated that his employees shouldn't use any kind of technological jargon, or what he described as "nonsense words." He explained that acronyms and complex words for objects, software and processes called for people to be explained to, therefore he encouraged staff to opt for simpler language in order to streamline their productivity and avoid unnecessary explanations.

Instead, be concise and clear with your language

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While opting away from the technological jargon that Musk told his Tesla employees, he went on to explain the sort of language he would prefer his staff to use. Basically, he would like his staff to use language that is concise, straight to the point and easy to understand. Otherwise, using complex sentence structures or words will only slow down communication. The multi-billionaire warned his employees not to sound smart, but to be efficient instead. Seems like an innovative way to run your company!

Contact your colleagues directly!

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Musk was clear with his employees that there should be seamless communication between colleagues. He encourages staff to just reach straight out to a colleague on Slack or Discord instead of beating around the bush and disrupting time. In one of his talks, Musk states that: "If, in order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen."

Nobody's job is safe

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One thing is certain at the moment for Twitter, nobody's job is safe. If you are find working against the rules that Musk has set out, then you will be dismissed. He said that he welcomes resignations from anyone that isn't on board with the new rules that are being put in place. In his first two weeks as Twitter's owner, Musk managed to sack nearly 50% of the company's work base, around 3,700 employees, including top executives too. It really does seem like nobody is safe at Twitter, no matter your rank! Damn, I think Musk would even sack himself!

Twitter employees must brace for tough times ahead

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Shortly after Musk decided to unjustly lay off his 3,700 employees, he hosted a meeting with the remainder of his employees in which he spoke about the financial troubles and hardships the Twitter company was facing. While discussing the finances, he warned the employees of the hard times ahead for all of Twitter. He then shortly pulled the working from home, free food and other perks and benefits. Right now sounds like the worst time to be a Twitter employee, a career that might have been ambitious once upon a time.

Engineers must work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week

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Out of all the twitter employees, it sounds like Twitter engineers might be the ones that have it the worst at the moment. According to CNBC sources, some of the most talented engineers at Twitter are being forced to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. The reason being is that Musk has set strict and aggressive deadlines to be hit, giving the engineers no time to rest at all. According to the sources, the extra time that the employees have been working has not included any mention of overtime, TOIL, or job security.

People should use their common sense

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Musk is encouraging his staff to apply common sense to situations when it is needed. It sounds as thought he's asking for his staff to be somewhat self-sufficient when it comes to doing their job, and not relying on bureaucracy that may not be applicable to tasks at hand. Elon Musk became the CEO of Tesla back in 2008, after becoming the largest shareholder in the company in 2004. It's safe to say that he's had quite a wealth of experience leading and managing teams. You'd like to think that all his rules are speaking from experience.

Sometimes, rules are made to be broken!

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In saying that about common sense, Musk then went on to encourage staff to apply common sense to rules and regulations around the workplace. He seems to be in the mind-frame that rules aren't always there to be followed, depending on circumstances, consequences, situation. He said: "In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change."

Musk encourages his colleagues to follow principles instead

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While this might be a list of "rules" that Musk have set out for his Twitter employees, "rules" might not be the word that Musk tends to use when talking about these. He likes to remind his staff that they should be following principles, rather than rules. I guess that his way of trying not to come off like the dictator of Twitter, but rather encouraging staff to adopt Twitter's principles as their own principles. However, it's clear that staff might not be happy about Twitter's principles, considering the laying off of over 3,000 employees.

Absolutely no leaking of information to the press...

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If you know anything about Musk at all, you'll know that he does not take kindly to people leaking any kinds of information to the press about any of his affiliated companies. He went to some extreme lengths back in 2008 regarding Tesla and the recession. A staff member was continuously leaking information to the press and in order to find out who it was, Musk sent "identical" emails to employees, but all were coded with extra spaces, etc. which then identified the leaker. It was a clever method!

...you don't want to be that guy!

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After the discovery of the guy who was caught by Musk for leaking all that information to the press, he was then subsequently sacked, obviously, Musk writing that he was "invited to further his career elsewhere." Since then, Musk has enforced his press stance even harder upon his Twitter staff, rallying that as employees and shareholders, it's a combined responsibility to keep the information safe. He said that anyone caught leaking would be terminated and potentially even criminally investigated.

If you don't want to abide by the rules, resign immediately!

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When Musk brought in all these new rules, he invited his staff to resign if they didn't like them, which I guess is a clear enough statement to make. It seems that as time goes on, more and more people will be willing to leave Twitter for a better workplace. Maybe that's Musk's plan and his structure, who knows, but we can all agree that Twitter isn't what it once was. Recently Musk has been at the center of a story line, where he's now started charging for the blue ticks on Twitter, once a prestigious icon only awarded to public figures.

Want to hear about some of the old rules?

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While we've written all about the new rules and how Twitter looks under Elon Musk, we thought we'd also touch base on some of the old rules that corporate Twitter used to have. Twitter has been around since 2006, and was originally owned by parent company Obvious, before being spun into its own separate entity in 2007. It became a pioneer in social media and attracted people of all ages. It didn't take long for it to become one of the biggest social media platforms, alongside Facebook and Instagram.

Think, think, think before tweeting that thought

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One of the rules that original Twitter adopted was encouraging staff to consider what they're going to tweet before they tweet it. If you give some consideration to the material that you will share on social media, you'll be more likely to be conscious of the act of actually updating your social media accounts. Ask yourself if the information you are going to upload would make you feel uncomfortable if it were sent to the incorrect person. If the answer is "yes," then you should reconsider the tweet!

Personal life and work life are two separate things

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One more rule that the original Twitter had was for employees to keep their personal life and their professional life fully apart from one another. Although it is true that this is a difficult problem to solve because our jobs frequently interfere with our personal lives (for example, by organizing business events etc.), that does not imply that they shouldn't try and draw that fine line between the two. In other words, avoid making personal updates to your social media sites while you're at work.

Always apologize for social media mistakes

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Of course, being a social media company, Twitter was all about owning mistakes. In the event that you made mistake while using social media, you were obligated to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. They strong discouraged denying and deleting the tweet, given the absolute ferocity of the general public. The best course of action is to just accept responsibility for the mistake and apologize for it. It is to your advantage to gain knowledge from your errors rather than to consign yourself to reliving them.

Never save your passwords to the browser

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One of the primary reasons why people accidentally post improper tweets from official company accounts is because they save their passwords to accounts in the browser. It is true that selecting this option makes things simpler, but it also raises the risk of your failing to properly identify the account to which you are actually logged in. If it's at all possible to avoid doing so, you should avoid saving the passwords to your Twitter and other social media accounts. This was a big rule for old Twitter.

I mean, at least it's not as bad as Jeff Bezos' Amazon employees!

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As much as working for Twitter in the current climate sounds hellish, it might not be as bad as working for Jeff Bezos' Amazon. You might have heard about the warehouse conditions before, but if not, you should definitely look them up. Reportedly, employees were so stretched out and stressed, that they wouldn't dare leave their place for a toilet break, so would do their business in a bottle! Also, employees wear monitor tags that will monitor all of their movement while on the job - micromanagement at its finest.