'Avoid meetings, nonsense words, use common sense': Elon Musk's productivity recommendations to staff

The billionaire informed the employees of Twitter, which he acquired recently, about this through an email, the details of which got leaked on the social media platform.

The leaked email also includes sub-heads for the employees to navigate success throughout their careers. The screenshots of the same have led to a lot of buzz on Twitter.

Musk sent the same emails to staff at Tesla, SpaceX and his other companies, giving suggestions to improve productivity.

Some of the points mentioned by Musk as per the screenshots are:

• "Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time." He has asked the staff to avoid frequent meetings "unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter".
• Musk further emphasised that if an employee finds they cannot contribute successfully to a meeting, they can "walk out or drop off a call". "It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time," he added.
• He said that it is not advisable to use "acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes", adding that anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication.
• The next suggestion further expanded on the need to communicate effectively. "Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the chain of command" Mr Musk said in his email to employees. "Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere," he added.
• Musk then asked the employees to "pick common sense as your guide". He said if following a "company rule" would make for a Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.

Earlier, Musk sent a message to Twitter employees telling them that they had until Thursday to consider whether they wanted to stay with the social media giant for "working long hours at high intensity" or take a severance package of three months payment.

Musk told Twitter staff that anyone who had not clicked on a link confirming "you want to be part of the new Twitter" by Thursday evening New York-time would be considered to have quit.

"Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful," his message reportedly.

Musk completed a deal to buy Twitter at 44 billion US dollars in October, gaining control of the social network company.

After taking over the reins, Twitter half of its employees in departments across the company as part of an aggressive plan to trim costs.