Musk had sent all the company’s employees an email asking them to commit to working harder if they wanted to remain at the company: “This will mean working many hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a pass,” read the ultimatum, which was obtained by The Washington Post.

“If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” read the email, which asked employees to agree to the terms on a linked form. If they did not do so before 5.00pm ET on Thursday, they were informed they would be entitled to three months’ severance pay.

Hundreds of Twitter employees have apparently rejected Musk’s new deal and decided to head for the exit door. The Tesla and SpaceX founder had already laid off half of Twitter’s workforce of approximately 7,500 employees within a week of taking control of the company. That was followed by a trickle of further layoffs and resignations.

Twitter employees left farewell messages on the platform itself, many after working at the company for years. “I thought my soul was already fully crushed after the last two weeks. I was so wrong. Today has been rough. There will never be a better culture than what we had. We know it. Every other tech company knows it,” tweeted one former employee. using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked.