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Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

washingtonpost.com

31–40 of 52 posts

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#31
post #30

A plan to reduce staff by 75% and double revenue in three years doesn't make a lot of sense to me. There's almost certainly a good deal of wasted money at Twitter, like at every large tech company. Dumb bets like NFT profile pics come to mind. But not to the tune of 75%. I cannot see how they can meaningfully operate, let alone meaningfully evolve to generate _more_ revenue, one of the largest social networks on eart…

> A plan to reduce staff by 75% and double revenue in three years doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Elon's plans may not be all that well thought out, as history has evidenced.

Ah yes, the doddering fool tripped into wealth

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#32
post #24

Here are Twitter financials for the last year. Revenue $5,078 (in millions) Cost of Revenue $1,798 35.40% Sales and Admin $1,760 34.67% R&D $1,247 24.55% Interest $52 1.02% Unusual Items $441 8.69% Their biggest expense 34.40% is "Cost of Revenue" followed by "Sales and Admin". For a company like twitter "Cost of Revenue" includes operations and Customer Care. I don't think that they can cut 75% at once, just the sev…

> I don't think that they can cut 75% at once, just the severance payment will be huge and they may not have the money for that. What if the plan is just to scare away as many current employees as possible now, before the deal is completed, thereby minimizing layoffs? I know a lot of engineers who have already left, but the prospect of a 75% cut may inspire more. Heading into a possible/probable recession, it may be…

Ha ha...watch them unionize real quick.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#34

How does a 75% workforce cut even work logistically for a company not on its deathbed?

Sometimes a 75% workforce cut is exactly what a company on its deathbed needs. In the case of Twitter they wouldn't even need to fire anyone. Just make employees sign a statement reaffirming their commitment to free speech and the 1st Amendment (ala forced DEI statements at other companies) and 75% of Twitter employees would likely depart on their own.

I don't think people should sign political affidavits from their employer. That's not useful or reasonable.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#35
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're assuming MAGA types come back in force and that advertisers will be unable to resist the lure of so many eyeballs, but I have my doubts about the demand for dumpster fire branding opportunities.

are there really that many of them? the numbers we’re seeing from truth social and it’s similars seem to indicate otherwise. my guess is, we’ll see far more users abandon twitter than we see of maga users swarming.

I don't believe so, but they are a very vocal demographic and in many respects have superior communication skills. Right leaning ideologues in recent years often come at discourse as a competitive sport or a kind of cognitive warfare, whereas liberals and leftists are more concerned with gaining external approval (of an audience or some third part) and pursue some sort of objective correctness or consistency, often tot he detriment of the argument they're making.

So while there are not that many MAGA types, they tend to punch above their weight in terms of what passes for debate on social media. Conversely, I'm nots ure as many liberals would leave as threaten to, because where would they go - Mastodon? Discord? People use twitter because it's a large flat platform rather than one with a lot of silos. That's why things can go so viral so quickly, but also why there are so many dumpster fires; anyone can find and address/respond to/ be seen by anyone else, with no need to know the address of the super sekrit server where the cool kids hang out.

I do think the likely outcome of all this is best visualized as a smoking crater surrounded by poop emojis, and have my doubts that large advertisers will want to associate their brands with it. On the other hand all sorts of other trash is commercially successful for reasons that completely elude me.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#36
post #31
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A plan to reduce staff by 75% and double revenue in three years doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Elon's plans may not be all that well thought out, as history has evidenced.

Ah yes, the doddering fool tripped into wealth

Not a doddering fool, but it's arguable his best days are long behind him. I haven't seen anything about this Twitter thing that suggests he's going to want to build something bold and incredible, challenging a lot of smart people and giving them the agency to do it. Instead it feels more like the actions of someone with a drug addiction and way more money than they know what to do with.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#37
post #24

Here are Twitter financials for the last year. Revenue $5,078 (in millions) Cost of Revenue $1,798 35.40% Sales and Admin $1,760 34.67% R&D $1,247 24.55% Interest $52 1.02% Unusual Items $441 8.69% Their biggest expense 34.40% is "Cost of Revenue" followed by "Sales and Admin". For a company like twitter "Cost of Revenue" includes operations and Customer Care. I don't think that they can cut 75% at once, just the sev…

> I don't think that they can cut 75% at once, just the severance payment will be huge and they may not have the money for that. What if the plan is just to scare away as many current employees as possible now, before the deal is completed, thereby minimizing layoffs? I know a lot of engineers who have already left, but the prospect of a 75% cut may inspire more. Heading into a possible/probable recession, it may be…

You are correct.

If you lay them off there are lots of expenses. If you scare them off then they will leave for free.

He is attempting to shake the tree before taking over on purpose.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#38

I can’t imagine many engineering teams that would hold up very well if 75% of the team vanished —- you would lose so much knowledge of your own codebase for starters, and morale would be a disaster. 90% of those who remained would start thinking of switching jobs out of pure pessimism. Then again, I bet it won’t happen. The actual cuts will be far smaller once it’s actually time to do it… Unless his finances are too…

By the time they make the cuts everyone that can find another job will be gone

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#39

How does a 75% workforce cut even work logistically for a company not on its deathbed?

1) cut 35% of engineering team, including all L4s and L3s, and people who have scored 2/5 or lower on perf reviews 2) Cut 100% of marketing team, Elon is marketing team now. 3) Cut 100% of policy team. Elon is policy team now 4) Cut 80% of sales team. Elon is sales team now. 5) Cut 95% of Product team. They don't ship anything too much time talking, not enough time shipping 6) Cut support team by 90%, only highest ti…

Look at me! I'm marketing and sales now! Elon probably.

Re: Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce

#40

How does a 75% workforce cut even work logistically for a company not on its deathbed?

Sometimes a 75% workforce cut is exactly what a company on its deathbed needs. In the case of Twitter they wouldn't even need to fire anyone. Just make employees sign a statement reaffirming their commitment to free speech and the 1st Amendment (ala forced DEI statements at other companies) and 75% of Twitter employees would likely depart on their own.

Why would employees need to reaffirm their commitment to what the US Congress can or can't do?
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