• Tech CEOs are turning up the heat, even if it's not as blatantly "hardcore" as Elon Musk's verbiage.

• Major tech CEOs have been asking employees to step up throughout this year's stingier economy.

• Employees at Google, Amazon and others have all been asked to work harder or risk their jobs.

Elon Musk has been cranking up the intensity at Twitter since taking over. Per Musk, there's a new "extremely hardcore" vision, "dense and intense" office structure, and an "arduous" road ahead — and employees need to be on board or leave the building.

Although other tech CEOs have not issued edicts as aggressive as Musk's, this year's economic downturn prompted leaders across the tech industry to tell workers they'll need to work harder, albeit couched in more diplomatic language.

If their language wasn't as belligerent as Elon's, the message was still similar: people would be expected to step up or find somewhere else to work.

At Meta, 'there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be her'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff in early July that he would dial up the intensity of employee performance goals.

"Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here," Zuckerberg reportedly said. "And part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might just say that this place isn't for you. And that self-selection is okay with me."

Later that month during the Q2 earnings call, Zuckerberg doubled down on that vision and shared that the company planned to "steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year," and that "many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company."

In October, Meta told managers to mark 15% of its employees as "needs support" in what workers dubbed "quiet layoffs," Insider previously reported. Across tech, more companies are now demanding a specific number of workers be put on performance improvement plans and ultimately managed out of the company.