X CEO Linda Yaccarino speaks to employees as fear of layoffs grows

During an internal meeting led by X CEO Linda Yaccarino on Wednesday, concerned employees tuned in to see if she would address the pressing issue on their minds: performance reviews.

Sources within the company confirm that a promotions process was recently delayed without explanation and that X’s sales team does not expect to meet its revenue targets for the quarter. Given how the company formerly called Twitter has continued to struggle under Elon Musk’s ownership, employees have been bracing for more layoffs.

One of Musk’s top lieutenants, The Boring Company CEO Steve Davis, has been reviewing financials at X’s San Francisco headquarters in recent weeks, according to several employees who requested anonymity to speak without the company’s permission. As one of them described Davis: “He’s the grim reaper who only shows up for bad things.”

An X source said On the edge that there have been a handful of people laid off in recent days. Many noticed the sudden departure of Yaccarino’s right-hand man, Joe Benarroch. So when a rare all-hands meeting with her appeared on the employee calendar last week, X’s remaining 1,500 or so employees waited anxiously to find out more.

The meeting began with a montage of viral tweets, including one of infamous GameStop trader Keith Gill, followed by Yaccarino entering an X conference room called “eXtraordinary.” It tried to drum up excitement about live events on the platform, such as the Super Bowl and March Madness, and asked employees to discuss Musk’s x.AI Grok chatbot with advertisers. She also emphasized that X’s focus on video “definitely boosted the publicity,” without elaborating.

As the meeting continued, X’s head of HR, Walter Gilbert, told the team that X is planning to implement a broader, more robust promotion process that will include “doing lighter check-ins throughout the year.” A source who attended the meeting joked that most of the questions sent in by employees were “definitely about HR, promotions, raises/equity” and were not addressed.

Musk was noticeably absent despite being in San Francisco along with Yaccarino. Instead, several other directors joined: Monique Pintarelli, head of advertising for the Americas, Nick Pickles, who leads policy, Kylie McRoberts, the company’s most recent head of trust and safety, and Haofei Wang, director of engineering.

While Yaccarino was scant on specific data on the advertising business’ performance, Pintarelli told the team that X now has more than “50% of our revenue attributed to performance objectives,” which she described “as a huge shift from where the business was. the last few years.”

While this all-hands meeting may not have given X employees many answers, Yaccarino emphasized that the company will hold them once a quarter, adding that the team will “also be hearing from Elon and I soon.”

Alex Heath contributed reporting.