San Francisco, Nov 13 (IANS): A Twitter manager puked in a trash can after the new owner of microblogging platform Elon Musk directed him to fire hundreds of employees as part of the company's decision to cut its workforce in half, the media reported.

According to The New York Times, Musk gathered several human-resource executives in a "war room" in the company's offices and told them to prepare for widespread layoffs.

He said Twitter's workforce needed to be slashed immediately, and those who were cut would not receive bonuses set to be paid on November 1.

When told to lay off hundreds of employees, one engineering manager puked into a trash can. Others slept in the office while working long hours to meet Musk's demands.

Several Twitter employees and people close to the company have described the fallout as excruciating, as well as internal documents and workplace chat logs. Some top executives were summarily fired by email, according to the report.

Moreover, layoffs were being discussed in an open channel on Slack on November 2, a messaging system used by the human resources and legal teams.

In a message seen by the NYT, one employee said 3,738 workers could be laid off, or about half of the workforce. The message was widely shared internally, said the report.

Recently, a company lawyer has warned that Musk has put Twitter at risk of billions of dollars in fines, as chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, chief information security officer Lea Kissner, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty have all quit in the fresh wave of resignations.

In a note posted to Twitter's Slack, an attorney on the company's privacy team said that Musk has shown that his only priority with Twitter users is how to monetise them.