The bloodbath at Twitter began last night with a warning to its global staff: winter is coming. Elon Musk had signaled a wholesale downsizing of the social-media platform’s 7500-person workforce all through the bid, the court fight over it, and after the settlement at the end of last week.

Today, the Red Wedding has begun, and it’s still not clear how many will be left after the purge. But just to be sure that the disconnect is complete, Musk locked everyone out of their offices overnight:

Elon Musk is beginning mass layoffs at Twitter, sharply reducing the company’s workforce of 7,500 and kicking off his wholesale overhaul of the company.

An email went out to the company’s employees late Thursday notifying employees of plans to cut jobs, informing them that by 9 a.m. Pacific time Friday, workers would receive an email with the subject line: “Your Role at Twitter.”

Those keeping their jobs would be notified on their company email. Those losing them would be told via their personal email. …

Anyone who did not receive an email by 5 p.m. Pacific time was told to follow up with the company. The offices would be closed Friday.

The closure was no coincidence, the New York Times reported this morning. The doors won’t just be locked, but badges for entry won’t work until the dust settles either. Apparently Musk doesn’t want fired employees removing materials from the company’s control, a process that was already underway:

“Has the red wedding started?” one employee wrote on Slack, a reference to a massacre scene in “Game of Thrones.” Nine minutes later, the company sent the email informing workers of the layoffs. Employees who will keep their jobs would receive a message saying so on their corporate accounts, the message said, while employees being laid off would be notified on their personal accounts. …

Rumors of impending layoffs had been swirling at the company. On Wednesday, employees took note of a Slack message that suggested 3,738 people could be laid off. The message noted that changes could still be made to the list, according to a copy seen by The Times.

On Wednesday evening, some employees circulated a “Layoff Guide” with tips on corporate surveillance and employment rights. One worker created software to help colleagues download important emails and documents. He was later fired, he said. …

By keeping workers out of Twitter’s offices on Friday, those who are laid off will be blocked from taking any items from the company. “To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended,” the email said.

That will certainly alleviate some of Musk’s financial woes after the overpriced acquisition. Based on performance as well as descriptions of the workplace, Twitter appeared to have a grossly bloated workforce for its actual production level. It didn’t help that some activist Twitter employees went out of their way to antagonize the new owner all through the process, including the publication of a set of demands for Musk to “allow” him to run the company he owns.

However, the layoffs may cost Musk some money as well. Even before the 8:59 am notifications went out, former employees launched a class-action lawsuit in California to block the layoffs:

Twitter was sued by former employees who say they were not given enough notice under federal and California law that they had lost their jobs amid ongoing mass layoffs.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco federal court Thursday by five current or former Twitter employees, including Emmanuel Cornet, a software engineer known for his satirical cartoons critiquing Silicon Valley, who was fired Tuesday, according to the complaint. …

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide advance notice, generally within 60 days, of mass layoffs or plant closings.

“Plaintiffs file this action seeking to ensure that Twitter comply with the law and provide the requisite notice or severance payment in connection with the anticipated layoffs,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the WARN Act. It also seeks to prevent Twitter from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.

Would that get them their jobs back? No, but it might get them two months of severance pay. The WARN Act applies to any layoffs exceeding 33% of the workforce and/or more than 500 employees, which covers Musk’s actions here. The consequences are strictly compensatory, though:

If an employer plans on laying off 500 or more employees, the WARN requirements apply. If an employer plans on laying off 50-499 employees and the amount makes up 33% of their employees, the employer also must make WARN notifications.

If an employer does not abide by WARN requirements, they may be required to give back pay to employees for every day the warning was owed, and the employer may also face daily penalties by government agencies that were not warned.

Musk might be perfectly fine with shelling out 60 days’ payroll under these circumstances, based on the risks presented by a hostile workforce. It also might be worth the cost to underscore that new ownership intends to run its own business rather than allow the inmates to run the asylum. It’s still likely to be a costly maneuver, even if Musk has already built into his financial planning a 60-day no-work period of employment for those getting the axe today. However, in the long run, paying them to sit at home and do nothing for two months could be the cheapest and best solution for Musk.

It will be interesting to see what happens on the platform itself after this morning’s purge. So far it’s been running smoothly, perhaps as a result of Musk’s transfer of Tesla and SpaceX coding personnel to Twitter as the sale closed last week. We’ll see if they closed all of the back doors and other access issues soon enough, and whether the “moderation” and throttling issues disappear, too. Maybe Twitter can run well enough on half its current staff — and especially when the remaining half gets the message that they’re also expendable.

Update: At least Musk understands the stakes involved. Earlier, he accused “activists” of pressuring advertisers even though literally nothing about moderation has changed yet:

Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.

Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

Just wait until he gets his first call from DHS.

Update: As it turns out, the attorneys for the world’s wealthiest dude had the WARN Act issue already handled. Everyone stays on payroll for 90 days, but they will have no access to the workplace or Twitter resources.

🚨🚨🚨NEWS: FIRED TWITTER employees given a 90-day severance package through February 2nd 2023

THEREFORE I don't think the class-action lawsuit against Twitter as a company will go anywhere ¯_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/rf9JV3wBEW

— Crab Man (@crabcrawler1) November 4, 2022

That should be the end of that pushback.