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

Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 1001 posts

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

#531

Post by ok_dad »

curious_cat_163 wrote: post #510
ok_dad wrote: post #357

Everytime a new Commanding Officer (CO) showed up when I was in the Navy we tried to bet which type it was: 1) The kind who investigated the goings-on in the ship, interviewed the officers and chiefs, and learned how the ship was being run, then made small changes over time to optimize the operations based on what they learned. Sometimes big changes in one specific area, if it was required (like fixing the ship's cry…

You are assuming that he is optimizing for employee happiness. I am not associating a value judgement to whether that is the right/wrong move in Twitter's context. I wish that we, as a culture, stopped harping over what Elon Musk might do to Twitter next. It does not matter. This will take some time to play out. I hope Twitter employees land on their feet. That is pretty much the only thing that matters. I don't have…

Actual happiness was not the point. In the Navy, the CO doesn't have to care about employee happiness, anyways, while Musk sort of does. 'Happiness' was a rhetorical device I used there.

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

#532

Post by cerved »

chson wrote: post #417
ok_dad wrote: post #357

Everytime a new Commanding Officer (CO) showed up when I was in the Navy we tried to bet which type it was: 1) The kind who investigated the goings-on in the ship, interviewed the officers and chiefs, and learned how the ship was being run, then made small changes over time to optimize the operations based on what they learned. Sometimes big changes in one specific area, if it was required (like fixing the ship's cry…

and generally acted like they owned the place To be fair, he actually does own the place.

To be fair, he owns most of the place

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

#533

Post by matai_kolila »

ok_dad wrote: post #451
msmith wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you've read Turn the Ship Around [1]? It's one of my favorite leadership books and tells the true story of the Navy captain who was put in the awkward position of running a submarine class that he was not familiar with. He adapted to the situation by leaning on the expertise of the crew in a way that was very different than the normal command-and-control style of leadership. It sounds like what you descri…

Yea, the Navy has basically fostered a shit culture that turned the leadership into MBA-style bullshit artists today. Leadership isn't taken seriously, just promotions and personal gain. Only those who kiss ass can make it in today's Navy. If more leaders like this guy who wrote this book were sent to the top levels, it would be an improvement. Instead, you notice he's writing books for a living now.

FWIW they teach 1 in MBA schools, if MBAs are doing 2 it's despite their education, not because of it.

Also most top tier MBA programs are an excuse to get wildly drunk basically daily and make a bunch of powerful friends, so it's very possible most people who go don't learn a damn thing.

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

#534

Post by wittycardio »

poszlem wrote: post #517
abxytg wrote: post #481

Or -- he's stupid.

What's stupid is people thinking that someone who successfully rules over some of the most influential companies in the world is stupid. Reminds me of all those people who claim that Trump or Putin[1] are "stupid" where in reality they just mean "I don't like them". [1] You can be a murderous dictator and not stupid, I would actually wager a guess that those people tend to actually be cleverer than average. Some appl…

Success is not really a measure of intelligence. I actually think Elon is likely quite intelligent but a lot of success is determined by luck, ambition and attitude rather than pure intelligence. I definitely do not think Donald Trump is very intelligent, but he has undoubtedly been very successful.

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

#535

Post by micromacrofoot »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #314
micromacrofoot wrote: post #201

Some people at Twitter have remote work in their employment contract.

Those same contracts allow that employees can be let go. It's not really the gotcha people think it is.

The couple people I knew with remote work in their contracts actually want to be let go at this point, wasn't saying it was a gotcha — but they'll need to renegotiate or be terminated.

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

#536

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #300
alistairSH wrote: post #275

So, he fires thousands of them while hob-knobbing with other billionaires on the other side of the country. And his first company-wide communication is rescinding previous WFH policies without much reason. What an absolute knob. Edit to add... He demanded a company-wide all-hands on one hours notice, then appeared 15 minute late. I hope every employee worth their salary walks, Twitter implodes, and Musk loses much of…

It's an interesting look from someone claiming to believe that climate change is one of the biggest threats to humanity. Better get those expensive developers working from the office again so they keep buying expensive electric cars...

Let's not pretend his goal was to sell more cars; that's ridiculous.

But to your point, he's always seemed to have this philosophy that climate mitigation doesn't have to be a compromise. In his vision of the future we do all the things we do now and more, but we do them better.

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

#537

Post by ssnistfajen »

freejazz wrote: post #324
ssnistfajen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the intention is to suspend ElonJet since Musk has already explicitly said he made the choice to not suspend it despite the alleged "personal safety risk". Trolls in this case probably refers to accounts that paid for new Twitter Blue and are now impersonating well-known figures/entities. The wording seems consistent with everything going on at Twitter so far, that he's just kinda winging it while every…

>"Trolls in this case probably refers to accounts that paid for new Twitter Blue and are now impersonating well-known figures/entities." Do you mean parody accounts?

Sort of, but only the kind that didn't obey Elon's hastily drafted "rule" that require clear labeling of parody accounts.

Some (hilarious) examples of what I mean can be seen here: https://twitter.com/theserfstv/status/1590593334216916992

These are amusing to look at, but for Twitter to be taken seriously long term this can't keep happening. Musk's $8 Twitter Blue change is what unleashed this chaos in the first place.

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

#538

Post by notacop31337 »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #528
slg wrote: post #208

Let's say you run a company and you want to reduce staff. Let's also say you want to make an unpopular decision (or multiple unpopular decisions) that you know will drive a certain percentage of your staff to leave the company. Wouldn't it make the most sense to announce those decisions before making layoffs? Let people self select whether they want to stay and work for you and then make your layoffs after to ensure…

I made a half-joke here on HN a few months ago that Musk was buying Twitter just to destroy it for the lols. Maybe everyone's wasting their time with rational economic analysis, trying to figure out a pretty simple guy with an obscene pile of fuck-you money and an axe to grind.

I made this comment to a friend recently that I don't think enough people are considering that he might actually be mad enough to have spent $44B to destroy a toxic business.

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

#539

Post by throwayyy479087 »

jedberg wrote: post #496

The number one result when you search for Twitter on HN: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever (buzzfeednews.com) 2953 points by minimaxir on May 12, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 1353 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23155647

I’ve been told many times that Twitter is a private company and can do whatever it wants.

Or does that only apply to the Red team?

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

#540

Post by s1artibartfast »

tthun wrote: post #512
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>>>> and generally acted like they owned the place this is the $44B problem to your CO analogy. Skin in the game. The world runs far better on it.

how much skin in the game .. isn’t this a leveraged buyout, with twitter on the hook for the borrowed money ..

He put up about 30B, financed 14B.

Still a lot of skin.

Post reply on HN