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Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

bloomberg.com

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Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#21

Post by shapefrog »

jstx1 wrote: post #5
whiskey14 wrote: post #4

It seems that Musk at this point is completely unaware that he is a walking contradiction. On one hand, he is a technologist. Forward thinking and driving towards the future. On the other hand, he is an old fashioned factory owner. He views his workforce as pure labour and can't accept that he can't force his employees to work under his total control. He also can't accept the gain in life capital for his employees in…

Cutting edge technologist for the investors, old school factory owner for managing people. Makes perfect sense if you're trying to extract the max amount of money.

> Makes perfect sense if you're trying to extract the max amount of money

Offshoring everything to the third world makes perfect sense to the old school factory owner too.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#22

Post by blitzar »

tjpnz wrote: post #15
SillyUsername wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also leads to more mistakes and cutting corners (usually hidden), so in the long term as they accumulate this will bite him in the ass when a particularly bad one gets out in the wild unnoticed. And I thought this guy had a high IQ, clearly he's not that bright after all.

Having a high IQ doesn't make you immune from cockups.

These are not complicated decisions to navigate.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#23

Post by kypro »

I am split on the remote work thing from a productivity / creativity perspective.

I do think there are times when I'm less productivity working from home compared to the office. I also think as a team we're less creative. Some of the best stuff I've done in my career has come out of casual conversations with my team about the stuff we're building. I've noticed I don't think about what I'm building as much when working remote, I'm just building it.

That said, I don't think 100% office is good either. That tends to just burn me out and I know other people I work with say the same thing. I think I'm at my best when it's 2-3 days in the office and the rest working from home.

40 hours in the office is really extreme these days. And any potential benefit of having employees working together in an office 24/7 is going to be negated by their dissatisfaction. Were I working at Twitter I'd probably be looking for a new job after this announcement. Not so much for the remote work decision either, but just the general lack of respect for how the employees prefer to work. This lack of flexibility probably means Musk won't just stop at remote work but he'll want keep track of your productivity, when you arriving in the morning, how long you take for lunch, etc. Working for these kinds of people in my experience is a living hell.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#25

Post by whiskey14 »

watwut wrote: post #14
whiskey14 wrote: post #4

It seems that Musk at this point is completely unaware that he is a walking contradiction. On one hand, he is a technologist. Forward thinking and driving towards the future. On the other hand, he is an old fashioned factory owner. He views his workforce as pure labour and can't accept that he can't force his employees to work under his total control. He also can't accept the gain in life capital for his employees in…

> he can't force his employees to work under his total control That is because he actually can force them to be under his control. > He also can't accept the gain in life capital for his employees in working from home for his workforce and that the future of work for humanity is probably decentralized offices and WFH, not middle managed, over the shoulder, supervised, centralized offices. I don't think he cares about…

I get what you’re saying but does that produce the most effective, creative and innovative workforce required to compete in the technology industry?

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#26

Post by lakomen »

whiskey14 wrote: post #4

It seems that Musk at this point is completely unaware that he is a walking contradiction. On one hand, he is a technologist. Forward thinking and driving towards the future. On the other hand, he is an old fashioned factory owner. He views his workforce as pure labour and can't accept that he can't force his employees to work under his total control. He also can't accept the gain in life capital for his employees in…

He's not a technologist, he's a ruthless capitalist playing with other people's money. Idk why he gets so much support. That guy is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He doesn't care about the planet, or the people, he cares about his bottom line and nothing else.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#27

Post by SillyUsername »

tjpnz wrote: post #15
SillyUsername wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also leads to more mistakes and cutting corners (usually hidden), so in the long term as they accumulate this will bite him in the ass when a particularly bad one gets out in the wild unnoticed. And I thought this guy had a high IQ, clearly he's not that bright after all.

Having a high IQ doesn't make you immune from cockups.

No I guess not. His rants on social media have cost him in the past. I believe he may have psychopathic tendencies because he appears to be attempting to project his own work ethic (long hours etc) onto staff but cannot emphasize with them, or understand they aren't him/have his circumstances/have his ability. His goals are great and have certainly pushed our tech boundaries into near science fiction, but he really doesn't have the social and people skills, which is ironic given he's bought Twitter. If there was one thing I could tell him, it's that he should engage his brain before his mouth, a little (benevolent) social manipulation to get what he wants will be more successful before he barks orders for long hours or sacks people at short notice. Carrot before the stick.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#28

Post by SturgeonsLaw »

jstx1 wrote: post #5
whiskey14 wrote: post #4

It seems that Musk at this point is completely unaware that he is a walking contradiction. On one hand, he is a technologist. Forward thinking and driving towards the future. On the other hand, he is an old fashioned factory owner. He views his workforce as pure labour and can't accept that he can't force his employees to work under his total control. He also can't accept the gain in life capital for his employees in…

Cutting edge technologist for the investors, old school factory owner for managing people. Makes perfect sense if you're trying to extract the max amount of money.

Similar to the formula Bezos is using. They are both making a lot of money doing it, just like the robber barons of the Gilded Age did.

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#29

Post by aperson_hello »

kypro wrote: post #23

I am split on the remote work thing from a productivity / creativity perspective. I do think there are times when I'm less productivity working from home compared to the office. I also think as a team we're less creative. Some of the best stuff I've done in my career has come out of casual conversations with my team about the stuff we're building. I've noticed I don't think about what I'm building as much when workin…

And the fact that Twitter employees aren't all near an office. If you live in Minneapolis, you're not exactly going to be happy that you have to go into the office (closest one is 6+ hours away in Chicago). It's not even a choice to go into the office or not at that point - it's an ultimatum of move immediately for a job where everything is on fire or be fired!

Re: Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

#30

Post by whiskey14 »

kypro wrote: post #23

I am split on the remote work thing from a productivity / creativity perspective. I do think there are times when I'm less productivity working from home compared to the office. I also think as a team we're less creative. Some of the best stuff I've done in my career has come out of casual conversations with my team about the stuff we're building. I've noticed I don't think about what I'm building as much when workin…

I'm beginning to think that collective distributed satellite offices is going to be big. Like WeWork but for companies to house their local staff and far less culty. Would help if they had standing desks, folding treadmills, three screens and everything else for a superb dev experience that is a bit of a pain to set up at home.
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