ELON MUSK’S FIRST email to Twitter staff has reportedly ended all remote working, with the billionaire said to have told staff he expects them in the office at least 40 hours a week.

According to Bloomberg, the new Twitter owner has warned staff the company faces “difficult times ahead”.

Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform nearly two weeks ago and has already cut around 50% of the company’s staff and has set about changing a number of aspects of the site, including how verification works and introducing a new subscription service.

The report said Musk told staff that there was “no way to sugarcoat the message” about the firm’s current economic situation and said “intense work” would be needed to help Twitter succeed.

Musk is said to have also eliminated so-called days of rest from Twitter calendars – a companywide day off which was introduced during the pandemic when staff first switched to remote working.

Before the Tesla boss completed his takeover, Twitter had a relaxed policy around remote work, which became widespread during the pandemic.

Now it is to be banned unless personally approved by Musk.

In his message, the billionaire is said to have also told staff that he wants to see subscriptions – including the revamped Twitter Blue service he has introduced – account for half of Twitter’s revenue.

Twitter Blue has now launched in the UK, with users able to pay a £6.99 monthly fee to get a verification blue tick badge on their profile, with other additional Twitter perks said to be coming in the future.

The scheme has been controversial because of its chaotic launch and concerns raised by some that it will allow bad actors to appear more authentic on the site simply by paying for verified status.

Bloomberg reported that in a separate email, Musk told staff that the platform’s priority over the next few days should be “finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam”.