The offices of Twitter will temporarily close with immediate effect, the company has informed its staff. The BBC obtained a message informing employees that the offices would reopen on November 21.

It did not state why it was moving.

The announcement comes as there are reports that many employees were leaving after the new owner, Elon Musk, told them to commit to “long hours at high intensity” or quit.

The message went on to say: “Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.”

Unions have expressed concern over the reports, and Prospect, the union for tech workers, has requested a meeting with Twitter UK to discuss how its employees are being treated.

“We will not let these makings of a digital P&O pass unchecked,” said Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect. He was referring to the ferry operator’s earlier this year decision to fire staff and replace them with agency workers.

“We are urgently seeking a meeting with Twitter UK Ltd to discuss how it will manage its collective redundancy consultation, ensure a fair and transparent process, and meet its duty of care and legal obligations to employees, including those with particular needs.

“Prospect will continue to do everything we can to support our members at Twitter. Big tech barons are not above the law and we will hold Twitter to legal account where possible.”

There are indications that many employees have quit in protest at Musk’s new conditions. There will probably be fewer than 2,000 people left when the dust settles today, a former Twitter employee who wished to remain anonymous told the BBC.

They asserted that all members of their team had been fired.

“The manager of that team, his manager was terminated. And then that manager’s manager was terminated. The person above that was one of the execs terminated on the first day. So there’s nobody left in that chain of command.”

Another person claimed that despite being ready to put in long hours, they had quit their job.

“I didn’t want to work for someone who threatened us over email multiple times about only ‘exceptional tweeps should work here’ when I was already working 60-70 hours weekly,” they said.

A request for comment from the BBC did not receive a response right away from Twitter.

Former Twitter vice-president Bruce Daisley told the BBC that some former engineers were saying that the social media platform could “fail as soon as Monday” in response to staff departures.

“There’s a large number of features that really seem to be predicated on having engineers on site,” he said.

“If those engineers have gone, then it does threaten the sustainability of the product.

“So, there’s a lot of people posting where else you can find them online.”

This week, Musk warned the Twitter staff that if they didn’t agree to put in long hours and be “extremely hardcore,” they would be fired.

The company’s new owner requested employees’ consent to the pledge in an email to the staff, according to the Washington Post.

According to Musk, those who didn’t sign up by Thursday, November 17 would receive three months’ worth of severance pay.

The company announced earlier this month that it was laying off about 50% of its workforce.

To announce their departure from the company, employees have been tweeting with the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked and a saluting emoji.

Musk tweeted on Friday: “And… we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol” despite the turmoil at the business.

Satirist Frank Lesser responded, quoting the Roman emperor Nero, who is said to have fiddled while Rome burned: “‘Rome has never been this brightly lit at night!'”

About 7,500 people worked for Twitter prior to Mr. Musk taking over. Thousands of contract workers were also reportedly employed by the company, the majority of whom are believed to have been let go.

After purchasing the company last month in a $44 billion deal, the richest man in the world was named Twitter’s CEO.

Musk tweeted: “The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried” in response to reports that Twitter was about to shut down.

He tweeted a meme of a gravestone bearing the Twitter logo in addition to a skull and crossbones emoji.

(Adapted from BBC.com)