According to Gregory Orosz, one of the first sources to break the news of the original “Fork in the Road” email, Musk’s demands may have backfired on him. Oroz tweeted that according to his sources, “far fewer than expected devs hit ‘yes’.” In the same tweet, Oroz claims that Musk sent out a further email toning down his strict no working from home policy, and is currently scheduling meetings with certain “top engineers” in an attempt to get them to stay with the company. 

In a later tweet, Orosz posted a quote presumably from a manager at the company. The quote suggests that up to 80% of employees in some departments could have chosen the severance package over Musk’s “hardcore” work policy. The person Orosz mentions allegedly said, “From my larger group of 50 people, 10 are staying, 40 are taking the severance. Elon set up meetings with a few who plan to quit.”

Scoop: I am hearing far fewer than expected devs hit “yes”.

Elon sent out an email relaxing remote working from the former draconian policy.

I’m hearing he is having meetings w top engineers to convince them to stay.

Sounds like playing hardball does not work. Ofc it doesn’t. https://t.co/VrPEn4IwBG

— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) November 17, 2022

The Verge editor Alex Heath also seems to suggest Twitter may be seeing its second mass exodus in less than three weeks. Shortly after the deadline passed, he tweeted that Twitter’s Slack was allegedly flooded with hundreds of employees giving the salute emoji. The emoji was used by other Twitter staff Musk has fired in recent times, and may be an indication that most of the staff posting did not respond to the email before the deadline, or simply said no. Heath goes on to say multiple Twitter employees have told him that the odds of the website breaking in the near future are “very high.”