For employees at Twitter (TWTR  ), the last few months have been a whirlwind, to say the least.

Just before Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, the Company's General Counsel Sean Edgett emailed employees to notify them that no layoffs were planned. This did little to appease concerns. We can see why. Twitter proceeded to lay off more than 50% of its employee base in the weeks to follow (~3,700 people).

A current employee anonymously shared a message from the Company's internal Slack (CRM  ) channels, "sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday. I'll do some research but if any of you who have been in contact with folks who might come back and who we think will help us, please nominate tomorrow before 4."

Were the layoffs all for show then? Why reverse something that could have been avoided in the first place? It's hard to say. Many tech and software companies became bloated as they accelerated hiring during COVID, incorrectly predicting that the pandemic induced growth they experienced was here to stay. And now that we see a reversal with slowed growth, higher inflation, and ever-increasing interest rates Companies are looking to shed costs. The first place they look is their employee base.

A class action lawsuit has been filed by affected employees against Twitter for violating worker rights as the Company failed to provide the 60-day advance notice required by federal law. The lawsuit, captioned Baker v. Twitter, Inc., No. 22-cv-06525 (C.D. Cal.) "charges Twitter and certain of its top executives with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934" as officially stated on Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP's page.