Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 1001 posts

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#221

Post by pjc50 »

bArray wrote: post #181

> Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone. If you want to justify your position, I would suggest highlighting the positive changes you _did_ make, rather than the positive changes you _intende…

An AI that promotes a single holocaust denial tweet has committed an unethical act, regardless of how it gets there.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#222

Post by magic_hamster »

cgeier wrote: post #211
seydor wrote: post #203

Quoted post unavailable.

It sounds like you are implying Polish workers are smart enough for 280 char messages, but not much more?

I believe that was sarcasm. Obviously the challenges running a platform like Twitter are not coming from the length of tweets.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#223

Post by johnchristopher »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #18

What a contrast in leadership when you compare the way Twitter is doing this (rumor is right before bonus/stock vesting and cold impersonal email) and how Stripe is conducting their layoffs (empathy, 14 weeks severance, bonus payouts, etc.) Which company is going to have an easier time hiring after the dust settles and they have a growth stage again?

I was thinking of the covid layoff at Airbnb, which seemed to have been handled better (iirc).

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#225

Post by MrDresden »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #18

What a contrast in leadership when you compare the way Twitter is doing this (rumor is right before bonus/stock vesting and cold impersonal email) and how Stripe is conducting their layoffs (empathy, 14 weeks severance, bonus payouts, etc.) Which company is going to have an easier time hiring after the dust settles and they have a growth stage again?

Android engineer with 12 years experience beneath their belt here.

Would never consider Twitter as a possible employeer after what just went down.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#226

Post by seydor »

cgeier wrote: post #211
seydor wrote: post #203

Quoted post unavailable.

It sounds like you are implying Polish workers are smart enough for 280 char messages, but not much more?

They are pretty good and cheaper than SV probably

Twitter is still worth it for the 280 chars. Sure video and images and 27/4 availability are desireable, but not essential

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#227

Post by cmatthias »

meragrin_ wrote: post #205
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #18

What a contrast in leadership when you compare the way Twitter is doing this (rumor is right before bonus/stock vesting and cold impersonal email) and how Stripe is conducting their layoffs (empathy, 14 weeks severance, bonus payouts, etc.) Which company is going to have an easier time hiring after the dust settles and they have a growth stage again?

Well, when you have employees with irrational hatred of the new owner, you have to take some precautions.

I think there are some very rational reasons for hating or at least strongly disapproving of the new owner.

For example, if the new owner of the company I worked for demanded on a Saturday that a new feature needs to be ready for testing by Monday, I'd be pretty upset.

Or, if I was on a team working on the problem of trust and ethics, and the new owner personally and un-ironically posted a completely false and inflammatory "news article" about a current event, and then several days later laid off my entire team, I wouldn't consider it irrational to be quite upset.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#228

Post by onetimeuse1234 »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #18

What a contrast in leadership when you compare the way Twitter is doing this (rumor is right before bonus/stock vesting and cold impersonal email) and how Stripe is conducting their layoffs (empathy, 14 weeks severance, bonus payouts, etc.) Which company is going to have an easier time hiring after the dust settles and they have a growth stage again?

Take this: You take over a company that was full of bad behaving managers and employees. The previous CEO supported this situation. The new CEO who bought the company need to quickly turn the ship around. Severance, bonus payouts? Yes, if the staff you take over was really good and they deserve it. Is it the same case with Twitter? Can we compare Stripe and Twitter on this level?

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#229

Post by nonethewiser »

DeathArrow wrote: post #204
seydor wrote: post #203

Quoted post unavailable.

Yeah, but they have lots of people working on PR and "ethical algorithms".

I think people need to take a step back and ask themselves, "are the projects I'm working on directly increasing revenue?" If not, bye bye.

Re: Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun

#230

Post by nonethewiser »

threeseed wrote: post #43
aliljet wrote: post #8

I'm pretty curious about how and where Twitter employees were distributed. For a company ostensibly worth $44 billion, having 7,500 staff feels pretty damn lean. It feels like Musk isn't just purging people, he's purging the Twitter culture...

Australia newspapers are reporting [1] that local staff have been locked out of their accounts. They were responsible for local marketing and news curation. [1] https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/musk-starts-mas...

Doesn't seem like a big add
Post reply on HN