Laid-off Twitter staff posted goodbye messages with #LoveWhereYouWork, a hashtag started by a colleague when she was given just a few weeks to live
Kena Betancur/Getty Images
- Lucy Mosley, a UK-based Twitter employee, started the hashtag after a cancer diagnosis in 2013.
- Colleagues made her a blanket and she thanked them in a tweet using the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork.
- It has since been used by dozens of Twitter staff who were laid off in recent weeks to say farewell.
Laid-off Twitter employees are posting farewell messages on Twitter using the hashtags #LoveWhereYouWork or #LoveWhereYouWorked.
The hashtag is almost a decade old, however, and relates to a Twitter employee, Lucy Mosley, who was diagnosed with cancer and given just a few weeks to live in 2013.
Twitter posted a YouTube video in 2020 that offers an insight into how it came about, as well as the company culture at the time.
Mosley's former colleagues in the London office praised her as being "fantastically hard-working" and someone who gave "not just 100%, but 150%" to her role.
Her coworkers, who said in the video that they felt helpless to assist at times, decided to do something to show their support. One sent an email to the whole UK office asking if anyone could knit.
They soon joined forces to knit a blanket and sent it to Mosley in hospital. The next day she tweeted an image of herself wearing the blanket with a caption saying "keeping cozy with my @TwitterUK @Twitter blanket," alongside the hashtags #LoveWhereYouWork and #Family.
"That tweet broke the silence that had been existing," a former colleague said in the clip. Another added: "We talk about the power of Twitter but it was probably one of the most powerful tweets that I've ever experienced."
After that, the UK team started to use it and it caught on with other "Tweeps" (a nickname for Twitter employees) around the world.
"It became this kind of hashtag of strength," one said. Another added: "It started to get associated with any moment that we feel proud to work at this company."
Mosley died in November 2013 just five weeks after her diagnosis, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The UK office wanted to commemorate Mosley so decided to put up a sign that read "Love Where You Work." As Twitter started opening more offices around the world, other staff members said they also wanted to do the same.
A former "Tweep" said: "It means a lot to those people who know the story behind 'Love Where You Work,' but also any employee as we all love being at Twitter, it's something they can relate to as well." Another said: "It turned into a celebration of Twitter's culture."
Almost a decade since it was first used, the hashtag has evolved and been reclaimed by "Tweeps" who were fired or have quit the company since Elon Musk took over in October.
One person said in the video: "It's bigger than Lucy and it's each and every person's hashtag to take and mold and do what they want with." Another said: "She gifted us a piece of our culture and I think it's open to interpretation. That's the beauty of it – it's what it means to you."
The hashtag was remodeled this week by Twitter employees who quit instead of opting to join Musk's "extremely hardcore" vision for "Twitter 2.0." They posted photos of their laptops with Twitter stickers and a farewell caption alongside the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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