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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

#961
post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 organizatio…

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

You think you will have autonomy or ability to make changes you want in a company run by Elon Musk? Cause by literally everything I read, his management style is pretty much the opposite.

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

I can see Musk making polarization bigger, but for the love of god I cant see him making smaller.

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

#962
post #864

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2020 the company I worked for did ~25% temp salary reduction so they could feel safe that they could keep everyone employed and such. 3 months after everyone did it they said "thank you thank you we are so happy we don't need to let anyone go". 2 months later they laid off ~50% of the development team and people throughout the company... At the end of the year they said no bonuses, followed by an email saying desp…

Zebra did a 5% salary cut during the start of the pandemic while saving costs on the offices, forced a pto burn, hiring freeze, and then had to spend $500 million to buy another company it wanted to buy. These large companies are struggling.

I had a run in with Zebra a few months back. I was impressed by that small interaction. I had no idea they operated this way!

I spoke to people from the UK (seems they were from an AI related acquisition .. not sure what acquisition). They seem to have good infra and intelligent technical people.

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

#964
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really feel bad for anyone who went out and bought a house in another place or made life decisions based on this policy which is likely a lot of people. This is really showing that you don’t respect or care about your employees which is par for the course for musk. However i think what he is forgetting is that Twitter isn’t some amazing challenge to solve like self driving or rockets. I think you will see a very unde…

> Really feel bad for anyone who went out and bought a house in another place or made life decisions based on this policy which is likely a lot of people. I don't. The usual recommendation for buying a house is if you're going to stay there for 5+ years. Job hopping in the valley every 3 years is pretty common. Committing to the remote work lifestyle with an expensive home when it's not clear how long WFH will be an…

> Committing to the remote work lifestyle with an expensive home when it's not clear how long WFH will be an option is a risky move.

I mean buying a house based on a program labeled “permanent” seems pretty low risk to me (especially if you’re in a position making a salary where you can buy a house).

Who could predict that a billionaire would decide to piss in their own cereal and fuck up that plan in the process?

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

#965

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Isn't the Hyperloop regularly derided by those in the environmental community for distracting from more useful/environmentally sustainable transit solutions. Tesla also bifurcated the charger ports on the market, which has slowed adoption of EV chargers by businesses. Definitely a more complicated relationship than a surface level analysis would imply

> Tesla also bifurcated the charger ports on the market

Not to defend Elon practices in general, but I believe Tesla chargers precede the standard ports in the US (and possibly in the EU)

I do not know whether Elon refused to open the standard or whether that was even considered.

the youTube channel Common Sense Skeptic has eloquent criticisms with little fluff: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgKWj1pn3_7hRSFIypunYog

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

#966
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really feel bad for anyone who went out and bought a house in another place or made life decisions based on this policy which is likely a lot of people. This is really showing that you don’t respect or care about your employees which is par for the course for musk. However i think what he is forgetting is that Twitter isn’t some amazing challenge to solve like self driving or rockets. I think you will see a very unde…

> Really feel bad for anyone who went out and bought a house in another place or made life decisions based on this policy which is likely a lot of people. I don't. The usual recommendation for buying a house is if you're going to stay there for 5+ years. Job hopping in the valley every 3 years is pretty common. Committing to the remote work lifestyle with an expensive home when it's not clear how long WFH will be an…

You don’t have to be in a bad position for this to become a stressful situation. A little empathy goes a long way. Im sure most of the engineers will be fine however even if you have money in the bank and are fine for years without a job the sudden shock of being thrown into a crap economic environment or being forced to move isn’t fun.

My dad was in the military and I didn’t have a choice but to move every few years when i was growing up. Even with a guaranteed job it’s an extremely stressful situation for a family to be put in.

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

#967
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 am split on the remote work thing from a productivity / creativity perspective

Even if productivity was down at home vs at the office aren't we already way too productive anyways ?

Living in the office would also be more productive, and working 10 hours per day, banning weekends, &c.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself if you're here to grind for 45 years to pay the lifestyle of eccentrics like Musk or to live life ? If it's ok to lose 10% of productivity while regaining hours of your life ?

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

#968
post #910
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really feel bad for anyone who went out and bought a house in another place or made life decisions based on this policy which is likely a lot of people. This is really showing that you don’t respect or care about your employees which is par for the course for musk. However i think what he is forgetting is that Twitter isn’t some amazing challenge to solve like self driving or rockets. I think you will see a very unde…

You'd have to be aware of the risks of buying a house somewhere far from the office. Nothing says the company can't change their mind.

Sure everything has a risk. I have a remote contract currently that they could decide they want a centralized office and will let me go if I don’t move. That risk should be seen as fairly low when the C suit has committed to it and if it does change it sucks. I would still feel bad for those people.

Im not sure if you are trying to say that because risk is involved we shouldn’t empathize?

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

#969
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…

This comment really strikes a chord with me. Some days, I’m way more productive, others not so much.

What I do love is eliminating the commute time. That is time I’ve been able to utilize in other ways that really contribute to my mental well being.

Walking the kids to school (instead of driving), walking the dog, exercise, catch up on chores or errands, etc.

That is probably my favorite aspect of working from home.

I do miss those serendipitous interactions with coworkers. And Zoom fatigue is real. (I’m just waiting for the day when Zoom alerts your manager that the Zoom window is not the active window on your machine)

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

#970
post #932

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone is looking at it too short term. Twitter isn’t going to disappear and he has shown a willingness to ride through rough economic times to reach his vision. Social Media is how people interact with the world now, most info we receive is filtered through it in some form. In the last 10 or so years the idea that these platforms need tight moderation to control what and who is speaking on them has become ubiquito…

He has runway as long as he is able to fund it, so there’s an upper bound.

This is important, he can fund it but not forever. He’s owned it what 2 weeks now? In the current market I’m lucky if I can order paint for a small building and have it arrive in 2 weeks - these days it takes more like 3-6 months. He appears to be moving at lightning speed with these changes. The thing is, when you are moving 10 times as fast as normal you can trip up 10 times as much and still arrive on time.
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