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Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

arstechnica.com

241–250 of 458 posts

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#241
post #109

In my opinion Elon miscalculated the type of people at Twitter. These aren’t people like the ones in Tesla or SpaceX where there is some sort of idealization of Elon. The number of fan boys he has at Twitter must be super low. None of the Twitter employees signed up to work for him, it’s pretty obvious from the public tweets that most of the staff has posted that they don’t have much respect for him. On top of that,…

The people who worked on SpaceX and Tesla were probably incredibly ideologically aligned with Elon genuinely believing they were changing the world for the better. Its really easy to pitch someone to work long hours when you are making one of the worlds first mass market electric car and honest to god rocket ships.

Meanwhile we are a years into total disenfranchisement with entire concept of social media. The sell just isn't there like his earlier ventures.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#242
post #135
post #109

In my opinion Elon miscalculated the type of people at Twitter. These aren’t people like the ones in Tesla or SpaceX where there is some sort of idealization of Elon. The number of fan boys he has at Twitter must be super low. None of the Twitter employees signed up to work for him, it’s pretty obvious from the public tweets that most of the staff has posted that they don’t have much respect for him. On top of that,…

Engineers interested in cars or rockets have way fewer exciting options than web devs working at Twitter.

The difference is working for a startup with the potential to make some good money vs working just for salary.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#243
post #72

Wild prediction: Twitter will continue to work as it did even after that ~80% workforce haircut. Make of that what you will.

Good thing there's not a peak event like the world cup starting in a few days that will possibly stress test all their services that no longer have any devs owning them.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#244
post #72

Wild prediction: Twitter will continue to work as it did even after that ~80% workforce haircut. Make of that what you will.

> Wild prediction: Twitter will continue to work as it did even after that ~80% workforce haircut.

Not only that.

If Elon succeeds that opens a new era in Sillicon Valley. An era where programmers are like steelworkers and coalminers in 1980s. You can raid large tech company (think Google or Apple), make workers redundant, cut costs mercilesly and return value to shareholders.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#245
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80hr+ in-office work weeks with no equity and the threat of being instantly fired for appearing disloyal in Slack or correcting the CEO... sounds fun!

They don't have stock? Also maybe don't say your employer is a "petulant man child" in Slack or otherwise undermine them and you'll be fine. The idea that an employer should keep people that actively dislike like him or her is insane.

> They don't have stock?

Twitter is a private company now. Not sure if you missed the news that this guy named Elon Musk bought the whole company.

> Also maybe don't say your employer is a "petulant man child" in Slack or otherwise undermine them and you'll be fine. The idea that an employer should keep people that actively dislike like him or her is insane.

I think the issue most people are taking with this is that the same standards aren't being applied. Elon is publicly deriding his employees, and then firing them when they respond in kind.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#246
post #109

In my opinion Elon miscalculated the type of people at Twitter. These aren’t people like the ones in Tesla or SpaceX where there is some sort of idealization of Elon. The number of fan boys he has at Twitter must be super low. None of the Twitter employees signed up to work for him, it’s pretty obvious from the public tweets that most of the staff has posted that they don’t have much respect for him. On top of that,…

On the contrary, I think Elon knows the type of person at Twitter and is getting rid of them as fast as possible, the only bad side being that he doesn't (maybe) realize the harm that will do when the knowledge of the systems walks out the door.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#247
worst part of this whole thing is how musk's attitude of how work should be done contributes to toxic work culture. rhetoric like "mission driven work", "long hours are the only way to change the world and get ahead", and "my way or the highway" as a successful businessman preys on people's (especially young people's) desire for social status, meaningful work, and money while in reality just enables overwork, underpay, shitty bosses, and every other aspect for a bad workplace

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#248
post #109

In my opinion Elon miscalculated the type of people at Twitter. These aren’t people like the ones in Tesla or SpaceX where there is some sort of idealization of Elon. The number of fan boys he has at Twitter must be super low. None of the Twitter employees signed up to work for him, it’s pretty obvious from the public tweets that most of the staff has posted that they don’t have much respect for him. On top of that,…

There’s a flip side to this: the act of surviving all this culling and thriving afterwards is going to be one heck of a resume addition.

The big challenges create big opportunities.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#249

Seeing Elon flail about so publicly like this is just hilarious to me. I feel like we're way off track right now from his original purpose of buying twitter (more free speech or something??? then it was bots then 8$ checkmarks and I can't even keep up anymore)

Me too and I feel quite vindicated as I have been saying it for a long time that Musk is an incompetent fraud with incredible amounts of luck. Edit: actually less vindicated but more happy that I don't have to hear from people how great Elon is any more.

I wish I could upvote you twice. Totally incompetent fraud. I mean SpaceX was a total stroke of luck. Sometimes you just get the right mixture of methane and oxygen by accident and the rocket just blasts off by itself. And we definitely wouldn't have to go grovel to the Russians had SpaceX not been the only company in US capable of delivering astronauts to ISS.

Same with Tesla and his other previous companies - just an accidental stroke of luck for an incompetent fraud.

Re: Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

#250
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80hr+ in-office work weeks with no equity and the threat of being instantly fired for appearing disloyal in Slack or correcting the CEO... sounds fun!

If you want money, work life balance, comfortable pace it’s not the place. If you want to change the world, are ready to push yourself, work with the most dedicated people, it is. It’s a place for very few. I would really like to work in one of his company, but I don’t think I have the stamina for it.

You will not change the world by working at the new Twitter. You will only do two things:

1. Work long "hardcore" hours for no increase in pay merely to dig Musk out of the financial hole he put himself in.

2. Clone existing services. Musk's grand ideas for Twitter 2.0 are simply to clone WeChat/TikTok/YouTube/Instagram/OnlyFans.

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