Reply to post: $4 million a day isn't salaries.

$4 million a day isn't salaries.

I have a suspicion that Twitter's costs were driven more by trophy office addresses and waste at the top over what the rank and file were paid. Salaries could have been much lower if the staff didn't need to be paid enough to live in some of the highest cost of living areas on the planet. Rents are also much cheaper in the "fly over" states and in the home counties where there is also a much higher quality of life for families. I had to hand deliver some prototype equipment from the west coast of the US to Ft. Wayne, Indiana on a day's notice. Getting there and back on the same day was not an issue so being away from a major city isn't an impossible task. That was a trip that revolved around physical products, if it were just files that could be sent electronically, I could have been on a beach in Hawaii and it would have made no difference between that beach and Chicago in real terms.

Losing so much staff in such a short period of time is going to lead to more people quitting when they see how much more work they will be required to take on and how much blame they are going to get for things going wrong where all of the people that knew how something worked were sacked. Twitter has some legal covenants they must follow in penance for past sins. If the people that knew the particulars are gone, it will mean more trouble with governments. Elon doesn't seem to understand that "free speech" isn't always tolerated in every country and there can be severe limits on what it considered free speech around the world. As the company grew, they had to work out understandings with different governments that expect the company to remember what was discussed and must be followed or there will be fines, penalties and even executives in those countries being detained. It's happened before even if Elon chooses not to listen to anybody telling him about those things (if anybody is left that was there). I wonder how much compliance staff was cut and the costs that might incur.

TL:DR, Staffing costs might not be a big percentage of outgoing funds. Just the most visible.