Former Twitter employees sitting on abandoned company laptops: report

A number of former Twitter workers are sitting on invaluable {hardware}, like firm laptops, that Twitter has seemingly deserted.

As detailed by Wired, whereas Twitter’s new proprietor Elon Musk scrambles to make the corporate worthwhile to pay again some $13 billion USD (roughly $17.35 billion CAD) owed to lenders for financing his takeover, some extra apparent methods to make a fast buck seem deserted. Particularly, after Musk quickly laid off important chunks of Twitter employees, the corporate has put little effort into amassing firm {hardware}.

One software program engineer fired in November informed Wired that he hadn’t heard something about returning a company-issued Apple MacBook Professional with an M1 Professional chip. The laptop computer was sitting within the engineer’s closet, digitally locked by Twitter after the engineer was fired. Wired notes that refurbished variations of the laptop computer can fetch round $1,000 (about $1,334.49 CAD). Whereas the M1 Professional variant is now not listed on Apple’s web site, the base-level MacBook Professional with M2 Professional chip retails for $2,599 in Canada.

Whereas a number of the ex-Twitter workers are content material to let their ineffective {hardware} sit in a closet, others are apprehensive it may trigger issues down the road. For instance, some former workers who spoke with Wired have been nonetheless owed severance and have been apprehensive having the laptops may result in delays of their compensation and even authorized issues. In discussion groups of former workers, some mentioned attempting to crack their laptop computer’s lock code or wiping and resetting the machine.

In the meantime, some former workers have been in a position to ship their gadgets again, whereas others acquired generic emails from the corporate asking them to fill out a ‘Twitter System Assortment Survey.’ Wired says many of the workers it spoke with hadn’t obtained the e-mail.

Wired obtained a duplicate of the survey, which mentions authentication tokens, company bank cards, company-issued smartphones and laptop computer chargers as gadgets that may be returned. The shape additionally famous that displays, keyboards, mice, show cables and stands don’t have to be collected. It doesn’t make clear what former workers ought to do with laptops.

The survey additionally asks for an handle to ship a transport field for ex-Twitter folks to load up with returnable gear, noting the field would arrive inside 30 days of filling it out. There’s an choice for dropping gear off at a few of Twitter’s workplaces.

Nevertheless, Wired says that, typically, ex-employees aren’t dashing to return the gear, with one telling the publication that “Elon can wait.”

Picture credit score: Shutterstock

Supply: Wired