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Musk’s first email to Twitter staff ends remote work

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

#891

Post by fshr »

danans wrote: post #801
dragonwriter wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He also wants to recreate the place per his own vision, so it makes sense to get rid of as many people carrying the previous culture as you can and then start hiring as necessary with the kind of people you want So, he's destroying all of the institutional knowledge, the brand image, and the existing business relationships, while pivoting to a radically different market. He wanted a fresh startup to sink $44 billio…

> So, he's destroying all of the institutional knowledge, the brand image, and the existing business relationships, while pivoting to a radically different market. Sounds about right. Also, I don't think he values the institutional knowledge much, and thinks he can replace it quickly, because he thinks Twitter employees were idiots and he makes reusable space rockets something something. Now he has to find a way out…

I'd like to hear your thoughts on what kinds of unique institutional knowledge you think they've built up and what sets the Twitter employees apart from their peers at other companies. My main guess would be scaling caches and services, but even that isn't a super rare these days compared to say 2006. I'm not sure what about Twitter specifically, the app and its functions, is that complex to pass on. Coming into codebases that large is very challenging, but it's doable. Isn't the current calculus ~ lowering headcount to stay solvent vs. the risk of more lost knowledge and the other 50% of the company losing their jobs?

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

#894

Post by burkaman »

DrBenCarson wrote: post #98
burkaman wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related, what are the odds that Musk would be cool with any Twitter employee taking multiple other full-time jobs at the same time?

I mean he seems totally fine with it, Tesla engineers are working at Twitter at Tesla investors' expense.

That is basically the opposite. Being ordered by your boss to go pull an all-nighter at his other company for no additional pay, as opposed to voluntarily taking an additional job along with the associated salary because you were bored and felt like it.

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

#895

Post by stickfigure »

janoc wrote: post #685
danans wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 all teams are properly staffed. He's got huge debt and declining revenue - both of his own making - so he doesn't have time for employees to self-select based on minor incentives. He has to strip down the car fast while someho…

>then start hiring as necessary with the kind of people you want. That assumes that people will still want to work for Twitter after all of this. Given that there is no shortage of jobs for engineers even after massive layoffs at Facebook/Meta and Twitter, many people are going to think twice about signing up to work for a company and owner that have a reputation for treating people as disposable trash. Employees are…

> That assumes that people will still want to work for Twitter after all of this.

Just a data point, but Twitter is now much more interesting to me (as a place of work) than it was before. Which is to say, it went from zero interest to "maybe?"

* Chaos provides opportunities to make real changes instead of being just a tiny cog doing what you're told.

* Advancement is going to be faster in a fast-changing organization.

* It's in "go big or go broke" mode. After a year you're probably going to know which. Better than spending a decade working for a zombie.

* I'm left-of-center, yet... I find political tribalism really fucking annoying. Musk could only improve Twitter in this regard.

So it's a mixed bag. I don't have strong opinions about Twitter (I'm not really a user) but it's way too early to be writing epitaphs.

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

#897

Post by andrei_says_ »

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 know I’m stating the very obvious but this and the layoffs feel quite adversarial.

The vibe I get from Musk is that he doesn’t care about much more than the numbers and believes that a hard dictatorship is warranted in this situation.

The sudden one sided decisions backed by ultimatums give me the impression of lack of respect for his employees and downright abuse.

I don’t see how such a relationship can nurture a positive company culture or retain top talent.

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

#898

Post by joenathanone »

propogandist wrote: post #868
ldbooth wrote: post #758

The timing of this is the content - not the ending of remote work issue. It's using the news cycle and a hot button issue (end remote work) to bury the regulatory liability of the headline of the 3 chief complaince officers resignation the day before a FTC complaince filing.

it's almost like the headline that was buried about Twitter and Facebook colluding with Biden's DHS to "police disinformation", where social media companies were shills for government propaganda > the director of the Election Security Initiative at CISA, recommended the use of third-party information-sharing nonprofits as a “clearing house for information to avoid the appearance of government propaganda.” https://the…

Ok propogandist

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

#899

Post by aisengard »

bilbo0s wrote: post #609
danans wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the stupidity was in the non-contingent offer to purchase it. Now he's trying to pay for that stupidity. Maybe he's doing that stupidly too, but only time will tell.

This. He let emotion laden political nonsense lead him into making an extraordinarily bad deal. OK. Fine. Not what prudent businessmen would have done, but now he's where he is with the Twitter deal. So at this point it's all about leading from where you are, and sometimes where you are is in a place where there are zero good options. Every option is terrible, and probably won't work to extricate you from your situat…

Doing literally nothing would have already led to a better outcome than whatever waves hands this is.

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

#900

Post by specialist »

dragonwriter wrote: post #745
danans wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 all teams are properly staffed. He's got huge debt and declining revenue - both of his own making - so he doesn't have time for employees to self-select based on minor incentives. He has to strip down the car fast while someho…

> He also wants to recreate the place per his own vision, so it makes sense to get rid of as many people carrying the previous culture as you can and then start hiring as necessary with the kind of people you want So, he's destroying all of the institutional knowledge, the brand image, and the existing business relationships, while pivoting to a radically different market. He wanted a fresh startup to sink $44 billio…

I think Musk wants a do-over for X.com. Whatever that means. Some kind of everything app.

If true, he bought Twitter for the branding, rather than build a new brand. If true, Twitter is about to get an extreme makeover.

$44b seems ridiculous to me. But what do I know? I've never understood the point of Twitter. Whatsapp, a mere chat app, sold for $16b. And Musk builds rockets and launched the EV auto market and...

--

I highly recommend Jill Lepore's podcast about Musk called The Evening Rocket.

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/elon-musk-the-evening-rocket

"Elon Musk’s visions of the future all stem from the same place: the science-fiction he grew up on. To understand where Musk wants to take the rest of us – with his electric cars, his rockets to Mars, his meme stocks, and tunnels deep beneath the earth — Harvard professor and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore looks at those science fiction stories and helps us understand what he’s Musk missed about them.

The Evening Rocket explores Musk’s strange new kind of extravagant, extreme capitalism — call it Muskism — where stock prices are driven by earnings, and also by fantasies."

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