Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has become more interesting than a soap opera. In the latest turn of events, the much leaner team left at Twitter have been given a deadline to commit to being “hardcore” or leave the social media platform for good.

Twitter employees have until Thursday 17 November to pledge allegiance to the platform. Dictated by new CEO Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and founder of Tesla demanded that his staff commit to working “long hours at high intensity” and being “extremely hardcore”. The other option? Leave with three months’ severance pay.

Twitter employees shown the door

Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the platform has been making news for all the wrong reasons. There are tales of being sent late night messages firing people on the spot, or not being told at all and being locked out of emails and Slack channels. 

In his next unprecedented move, Musk communicated to all employees that, “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore.”

The message continued, “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

Staff were then asked to click on a link if they wanted to be part of the “new Twitter” by 5pm New York time on 17 November. It was made clear that if you did not click on this link and click to a new culture of being both hardcore and an exceptional performer, you would be laid off with a three month severance package, effective immediately. 

“Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful,” Musk added to the email. 

The move comes after Musk let go of the senior leadership team 24 hours after he took the reins of Twitter.

It’s been a tumultuous time for the tech industry and specifically Twitter employees. But as more users bow out in the wake of Musk’s ownership, others are jumping back on board to watch what some are calling “the final days” of the bird platform as it plummets towards the ground.