Dive Brief:

• Sources close to Twitter's decision makers say the company may soon fire up to 8% of its employees, which translates to about 300 people, according to a report from Bloomberg. 
• It's the same percentage of layoffs enacted nearly a year ago. Bloomberg says there's likely a correlation between Twitter's inability to find a buyer, its slowing sales growth and the firing rumors. Twitter has seen a 40% fall in its share price over the past year.
• Poor financial performance means that its harder for the company to pay employees in stock options, Bloomberg says, which also means it will have an even harder time competing with tech sector giants like Google and Facebook.

Dive Insight:

The company's current situation is nothing short of a contradiction in today's feedback-first culture. There were already warning signs last week that the company's benefits practice of paying employees via company stock options would no longer be sustainable, mainly because Twitter's growth had slowed by so much.

Stock options are certainly an interesting option for HR leaders, as research suggests this kind of shared ownership might encourage innovation. But stock options are also losing ground to other benefits, like paid parental leave, despite the fact that legislation to make offering them easier has already been passed by the House of Representatives.