Twitter announced Tuesday it will lay off up to 336 employees, or 8 percent of its workforce. Twitter says the layoffs will help the company be more efficient and work on its "top priorities."

The decision to make the layoffs was made just one week after Twitter gave then-interim CEO Jack Dorsey the permanent title as chief executive officer, The Verge reports. 

Dorsey sent an email to employees that explained the decision for the layoffs. He said the company needs to focus on the user experience on Twitter, like the new Moments feature.

Most of the layoffs will come in the product and engineering teams. Dorsey believes a smaller amount of engineers will help the team function better. Engineers will still be the biggest piece of Twitter.

Twitter expects to pay between $10 million to $20 million due to the restructuring. Almost all of that money will go to severance payments.

Twitter believes the layoffs will help the company's finances in the short term and have increased their quarterly revenue forecast from $545 million to $560 million.

"This isn't easy. But it is right," Dorsey said. "The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there."

One employee, Bart Teeuwisse, allegedly found out that he was laid off when he tried to log in to his Twitter account Tuesday morning. When entering his password, he received a "no access" message. He also received an email Twitter with the subject "You've been removed from Twitter Inc."

Twitter users responded to Teeuwisse's tweet and said it was a really poor way for Twitter to inform him of his lay off. Teeuwisse also received a voice message but saw the email first.

Twitter's stock was up almost 5 percent at midday trading on the news.