2022年11月05日 VOA慢速英语：Twitter 在马斯克的领导下开始大规模裁员

 

Twitter began widespread dismissals of employees as new owner Elon Musk reorganizes the social media site.
随着新东家埃隆马斯克重组社交媒体网站，Twitter 开始广泛解雇员工。
 
The company had told employees by email that they would find out by Friday morning if they had been laid off. The email did not say how many of the 7,500 or so employees would lose their jobs.
该公司已通过电子邮件告诉员工，如果他们被解雇，他们将在周五早上知道。这封电子邮件没有说明大约 7,500 名员工中有多少人会失业。
 
Musk did not answer a question about the dismissal plan at a conference in New York on Friday. Investor Ron Baron had asked the businessman how much money he would save after he "fired half of Twitter."
马斯克周五在纽约的一次会议上没有回答有关解雇计划的问题。投资者罗恩·巴伦曾问这位商人，在他“解雇了一半的推特”后，他会节省多少钱。
 
Instead, Musk blamed activists who called on companies to halt advertising on the site. "The activist groups have been successful in causing a massive drop in Twitter advertising revenue," he said. He added that Twitter had done its best to satisfy the activists. But, "nothing is working," Musk said.
相反，马斯克指责那些呼吁公司停止在该网站上投放广告的活动人士。“激进组织成功地导致推特广告收入大幅下降，”他说。他补充说，Twitter 已尽最大努力让活动人士满意。但是，“没有任何效果，”马斯克说。
 
Twitter employees have been expecting job cuts following Musk's $44 billion takeover of the company. On his first day as owner, Musk fired several top leaders. He also removed the company's board of directors and made himself the only board member.
在马斯克以 440 亿美元收购该公司后，Twitter 员工一直期待裁员。在担任老板的第一天，马斯克解雇了几位高层领导。他还解散了公司的董事会，让自己成为唯一的董事会成员。
 
On Thursday night, many Twitter employees expressed support for co-workers by posting heart emojis in blue – the same color as Twitter's bird logo.
周四晚上，许多 Twitter 员工通过发布蓝色心形表情符号来表达对同事的支持——与 Twitter 的鸟标志颜色相同。
 
By early Friday, some employees posted that they could not log into their work accounts. They said those who worked in engineering, communications, product and content curation were among those being dismissed.
到周五早些时候，一些员工发帖称他们无法登录自己的工作账户。他们说，那些在工程、通信、产品和内容管理方面工作的人都被解雇了。
 
Rachel Bonn, a Twitter user wrote: "Last Thursday in the SF (San Francisco) office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. 8 months pregnant and have a 9 month old. Just got cut off from laptop access."
推特用户雷切尔波恩写道：“上周四在旧金山（旧金山）办公室，推特的最后一天真的是推特。怀孕 8 个月，还有一个 9 个月大的孩子。刚刚被切断了笔记本电脑的访问权限。”
 
Arnaud Weber, a vice president of engineering said his goodbye on Twitter on Friday: "Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but I'm proud of what we accomplished."
工程副总裁 Arnaud Weber 周五在 Twitter 上说：“Twitter 仍有很多未开发的潜力，但我为我们所取得的成就感到自豪。”
 
A worker said employees on the Twitter Blue team were also dismissed. The team was working on developing new products for the site. "Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this," the employee said.
一名工人说，Twitter Blue 团队的员工也被解雇了。该团队正在为该网站开发新产品。“为了清楚起见，他解雇了为此工作的团队，”该员工说。
 
Is it legal?
合法吗？
 
A spokesperson for California's Employment Development Department told The Associated Press that Musk and Twitter had not given public notice of the coming layoffs.
加利福尼亚州就业发展部的 一位发言人告诉美联社，马斯克和 Twitter 尚未就即将进行的裁员进行公开通知。
 
U.S. and California laws require employers with at least 100 workers to give public notice if planning to dismiss 500 or more employees. The requirement is for both publicly traded and privately held companies.
美国和加利福尼亚州的法律要求拥有至少 100 名员工的雇主在计划解雇 500 名或更多员工时发布公告。该要求适用于上市公司和私营公司。
 
On Thursday, several employees opened a legal action against Twitter in a federal court in San Francisco. One had been fired and the others had been locked out of the company's computer systems. The employees say Twitter plans to dismiss more employees and has violated the law by not providing the required notice.
周四，几名员工在旧金山的联邦法院对 Twitter 提起了法律诉讼。一个被解雇了，另一个被锁在公司的计算机系统之外。员工们表示，Twitter 计划解雇更多员工，但未提供必要的通知违反了法律。
 
The layoffs come at a tough time for social media companies as companies are cutting back on advertising. In September, Facebook's parent company Meta said it was working on plans to reorganize and reduce workers.
裁员正​​值社交媒体公司的艰难时期，因为公司正在削减广告。9 月，Facebook 的母公司 Meta 表示正在制定重组和裁员的计划。
 
Big companies including General Motors and General Mills have all halted advertising on Twitter. The companies wanted to see how the service will operate under Musk.
包括通用汽车和通用磨坊在内的大公司都已停止在 Twitter 上投放广告。两家公司想看看在马斯克的领导下这项服务将如何运作。
 
And Europe's Volkswagen Group said Friday it is suggesting a suspension of paid advertising on Twitter for its car companies, including Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
欧洲大众汽车集团周五表示，它建议暂停在 Twitter 上为其汽车公司（包括奥迪、保时捷和宾利）投放付费广告。