Usually a promise of stock grants or a new office is catnip to tech employees. But when the promise comes from Elon Musk, workers at his social media service have learned to be skeptical.
Staff at X, formerly known as Twitter, recently received what would normally be welcome news: Last week, Musk told them they'd get a new stock grant if they could prove in a memo that their recent work made them worthy of a reward. Meanwhile, earlier in August, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the planned closure of the company’s longtime San Francisco headquarters, and that employees would have move to a smaller office well outside the city.
In both cases, many X employees reacted with a shrug. Under two years of Musk's ownership, the company has made a number of promises, but often failed to keep them or bumbled their execution.
Since news of the office move three weeks ago, staff have received no more details about it. In the absence of official information, workers have been left to trade in rumors—the latest of which is that they will be forced out of the office by the end of August, less than a week away. Yet no one has started packing the little that remains in the office, which has undergone a bloodbath of thousands of layoffs and resignations in the two years since Musk bought the company.
“We haven’t been told anything about the move,” one current staffer told Fortune. During an all-hands meeting on Aug. 6, staffers were expecting to receive more detail on the office closure. Instead, Yaccarino focused her remarks on a new lawsuit against an advertising advisory group and an internal plan to focus X’s shrinking ad revenue on “SMBs,” or small and medium size businesses.
This article is based on the accounts of two current staffers and one former staffer who is still in touch with current employees. They all demanded anonymity for fear that they would be fired for speaking out publicly.
X did not respond to emails seeking comment.
In her only email about the office closure, Yaccarino told X's San Francisco staff they would be relocated to one of two offices, either an hour away in Palo Alto, Calif., or slightly further afield in San Jose. No one has been told which office they're assigned to.
The CEO also mentioned possible “transportation options," apparently a nod to commuter shuttles like those that several larger tech companies offer their employees. Given no additional details, staff has been left to wonder how they'll get to work after the move, the source said.
When it comes to the promised stock award, that same staffer responded to Fortune's questions with a wry “lol.” For about a year now, X employees have been required to send weekly and monthly emails to their managers describing their work and positive impact on X. Some managers don't bother enforcing the rule, both of the staffers said, but others do. “No one understood where those emails went,” one of the sources added.
Some staffers aren't holding their breath that the stock grants will ever materialize. Five months ago, X employees were told after the annual performance review period concluded that they would receive additional stock grants. But those grants haven't shown up, both of the current employees said.
Musk has made a habit of failing to pay people and entities associated with X. Beyond the thousands of rank-and-file employees who were laid off or fired without promised severance and subsequently pursued mass arbitration, several former Twitter executives laid off immediately after Musk's acquisition of the company are suing Musk for their own large severance packages, which he has refused to pay. A former board member is suing, too, while several vendors and landlords have lodged their own lawsuits over Musk's failure to pay what they claim to be owed.
Because of the doubts surrounding the latest stock offer, some employees aren't enthusiastic about having to write another memo about their contribution to the company. Musk’s email did not specify whether the offer is actually a new one or just a rehash of the long-expected refresher grants.
Either way, many employees don't consider stock grants to be a financial windfall. Given X’s business struggles, driven mainly by a huge drop-off in advertising revenue, the restricted stock units are “essentially worthless,” one of the staffers said.
Under Musk, X has only once issued restricted stock and only to a limited number of staffers. That grant came about a year after they were promised, and valued X at almost 60% less than what Musk paid for it. That stock came with restrictions. Employees must hold onto it for a year and then can only sell it to an approved group of outside investors. Due to X's business struggles and limited investor appetite for them, the shares aren't worth much, one source said.
Although X staffers last year received an internal guide laying out what would happen to their RSUs should an internal sale of their stock be set or the company go public again, neither seems likely. In the early days of the Twitter takeover, Musk spoke occasionally of taking the company public again. He has not done so for many months, staffers said. And there is no scheduled sale of RSUs coming up, despite an initial vesting cliff being just weeks away.
“There is no liquidity event in sight,” one staffer said.
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