Elon Musk is looking for someone else to run Twitter already

Elon Musk has revealed that he's on the hunt for someone to take over as the new leader of Twitter just weeks after he took over the company.

The Tesla founder announced plans to step back from the bird app once he's laid down the groundwork for his restructuring plans.

And it's been a pretty wild few weeks at Twitter since Musk secured the company for an eye-watering $44 billion last month.

Between mass lay-offs and glitchy paid-verification schemes created on tight deadlines, employees at the social media company can't seem to catch a break.

But it sounds like, if they jump through the billionaire's latest hoop, employees won't have to deal directly with Musk for much longer.

Giving testimony in Delaware court this week to defend against claims that his $56 million Tesla pay package was based on easy to achieve performance targets, Elon detailed his plans for the future of Twitter.

"There's an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition to reorganise the company," he explained.

"I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time."

After the testimony, Musk told followers that he planned to run Twitter 'until it is in a strong place, which will take some time.'

Following the news of Elon's plan to appoint a new leader, people looked to the company's co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey to ask him if he would consider taking the position, to which he simply replied: "nope".

So who Elon decides to appoint as his next in command is anyone's guess.

Alamy / David Branson

I can only imagine that most of the remaining employees will be excited to see the back of Musk, especially after the 'hardcore' ultimatum he issued to staff this week.

In a company-wide email seen by The Guardian, he asked workers to commit to working 'long hours at high intensity' and going 'extremely hardcore' for the company.

Any staff who didn't agree to Musk's new conditions by the end of the working day were to be let go from the company with three months' severance pay.

Musk wrote in the email: “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore.

“This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

After issuing the deadline, he concluded: “Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful."