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Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

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Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#281

Post by tylersmith »

fnimick wrote: post #78
tylersmith wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are scheduling emails and faking commits to feign value then they should absolutely be cut.

So when your new teammate decides to start working through the weekend and suddenly you need to do so as well in order to match them in the performance review, what's your response? And notice that I didn't say anything about the quality of work being delivered - when you need to be visibly pulling overtime with the exact same work output in order to compete, what do you do?

Either compete or go to a place that measures performance correctly.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#282

Post by heleninboodler »

ilyt wrote: post #254
heleninboodler wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to recognize that there are people who would rather work more than harder and that's ok. You provide your value and I'll provide mine. To be frank, I'm not sure I'm capable of working harder, but the occasional weekend project because you're fired up about the goals or the challenge is exhilarating. For you to think you can dictate that I shouldn't ever do that seems kind of selfish to me. PS: how dare you work h…

> Try to recognize that there are people who would rather work more than harder and that's ok. I don't understand that at all. You'd rather work 60 and 20 of that slack instead of 40 ? Why would you want to have less time for hobbies/family ?

Well, first off, I haven't put any numbers on it, so 60 hours is made up. Second, I'm not saying I'm going to "slack" during the 40 and waste 20 hours, I'm just talking about doing a normal job (with a normal amount of slacking interspersed. Let's not ignore that I'm posting on HN during my standard business hours at this very moment). And third, I am capable of adjusting how much time I need for hobbies and family on any given day, and sometimes I'll happily trade a saturday with hobbies or family to do some good work. I honestly don't know what it would be like to have a job that I never ever felt passionate enough about to willingly put in a little extracurricular time. It sounds horrible.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#283

Post by the-printer »

ilyt wrote: post #243
the-printer wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am formally challenging the notion that if corporate media were to disappear, people would suddenly lose their will to report and investigate on serious affairs that make up the tiny fraction of valuable content. If anything, there is a likelihood that people would even feel more compelled to do so with the understanding that they cannot expect major news outlets to do the work for them. I do however champion the l…

Well, question is really who will pay investigative journalist ? Independently funded ones would be overall better option but that's not exactly easy sell ("I might or might not produce some content once in a while") and "getting the name for yourself" first is pretty much requirement for crowdfunding.

To consider financial incentives or any sort of funding is an affront to those affected by a serious matter that may warrant an investigation.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#284

Post by mhoad »

CountSessine wrote: post #276
mhoad wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also seem to have a very narrow definition of what failure looks like as defined by HTTP status codes. It’s already over… I don’t know how long the death rattle is going to last but it’s past the point of no return in any meaningful sense.

What metric would you use? Daily impressions? Those seem to be up. Posts? Also up. Impressions, posts, and status codes are the measure of success (status codes of course being a proxy for earnings as well as operations given that if they go out of business they won't be returning status codes at all).

Politely.. it’s very clear from this post that you don’t seem to have any background in anything business related.

None of those things are going to have any impact on the eventual outcome here.

I was pretty clear about the very specific problems they are facing and how any one of them individually is potentially fatal for them. Without solutions to those problems the end result is going to be the same it’s just the timeline that’s in question.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#285

Post by the-printer »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #170
the-printer wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am formally challenging the notion that if corporate media were to disappear, people would suddenly lose their will to report and investigate on serious affairs that make up the tiny fraction of valuable content. If anything, there is a likelihood that people would even feel more compelled to do so with the understanding that they cannot expect major news outlets to do the work for them. I do however champion the l…

Your average individual would have investigated something regardless of the presence or absence of corporate media, mostly because these stories don't just immediately happen; they take months of work where the public obviously has no clue what is or isn't being looked into. But your average individual also doesn't, and realistically won't, have the reach of corporate media. That's where their value lies: they are ab…

> But your average individual also doesn't, and realistically won't, have the reach of corporate media. That's where their value lies: they are able to get stories out to millions of people and the recognition behind their name to give credibility to the reporting.

The irony of this is that the reach of corporate media is effectively deadened due to the reason that we’re having this discussion at all: the same outlets bely their own influence by publishing worthless content. In a world without corporate (news) media, there are still other ways to get news out through the wire.

Credibility is a good point, but speaks to a larger discussion on whether credibility in the media is based off of reputation, legacy, acolytes, accolades, etc?

At the end of the day, if the fall of corporate media effectively obliterates peoples will to “speak truth to power”, as the journalists like to say, then society is in pitiful shape and those whose will would disappear along with the Post, the Times and the Tribune lack integrity.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#286

Post by in_cahoots »

dibt wrote: post #278
in_cahoots wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That statement is inaccurate for many reasons. Employees in India and other countries were offered nothing. The “severance” is really 1 month severance and 2 months garden leave, which is required under WARN and may not be paid if employees get another job. This is a direct contradiction of the terms of the merger. If you trust Elon to do the right thing for employees after seeing the class action lawsuits at Tesla (…

> If you trust Elon to do the right thing Where did I say I trust Elon or any other CEO? Still waiting on someone to explain what is "inhumane" about getting laid off with a severance package. Remember we are talking about employees working at a big tech firm. They'll find work elsewhere, and have had pay above the national average. They likely have plenty of savings. I don't give a shit about Elon or Twitter. My com…

How is the fact that Indian employees got no severance irrelevant?

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#287

Post by reaperducer »

kadoban wrote: post #275
kevstev wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly because we generally work during the same business hours other people are? If you ever have to deal with an insurance issue, sign a lease, take out or refinance a mortgage, buy a car... etc... its probable that you will have to print something out at the office, sign it, scan it and send it back to someone- and now its essentially open for the company to read. Even if you aren't downloading and printing someth…

For me, I can do 99.9% of things on my phone. I can't remember the last time I had to actually print something. I guess my experience must not match others', fair enough.

I guess my experience must not match others', fair enough

At least you can admit it. Things I've needed a printer for in recent months, off the top of my head:

- Filing a reimbursement claim for going to an out-of-network healthcare provider.

- Filing a reimbursement claim for contact lenses.

- Filing legal paperwork with the county clerk.

- Getting a certified death certificate.

- Passport renewal.

- Change of address without paying a fee.

- Letter to the local postmaster.

- Paperwork for claiming an inheritance through a probate court.

- Printing a shipping label.

- Filing a zoning application.

- Life insurance forms.

The more you adult, the more you discover that you still need paper.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#288

Post by dibt »

in_cahoots wrote: post #286
dibt wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you trust Elon to do the right thing Where did I say I trust Elon or any other CEO? Still waiting on someone to explain what is "inhumane" about getting laid off with a severance package. Remember we are talking about employees working at a big tech firm. They'll find work elsewhere, and have had pay above the national average. They likely have plenty of savings. I don't give a shit about Elon or Twitter. My com…

How is the fact that Indian employees got no severance irrelevant?

> What was the "inhumane" manner?

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#289

Post by dibt »

in_cahoots wrote: post #286
dibt wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you trust Elon to do the right thing Where did I say I trust Elon or any other CEO? Still waiting on someone to explain what is "inhumane" about getting laid off with a severance package. Remember we are talking about employees working at a big tech firm. They'll find work elsewhere, and have had pay above the national average. They likely have plenty of savings. I don't give a shit about Elon or Twitter. My com…

How is the fact that Indian employees got no severance irrelevant?

> The “severance” is really 1 month severance

> Indian employees got no severance

https://www.cnbctv18.com/business/companies/elon-musk-justif...

"Here is an excerpt of letters shared with employees in India and reviewed by CNBC-TV18:

“Today is your last working day at the company, however, you will remain employed by Twitter and will receive compensation and benefits through your separation date of January 4, 2023.""

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#290

Post by joshuamcginnis »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #21
joshuamcginnis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generations of workers fought for the _choice_ to not work weekends. Some people, including myself, are happy to work weekends and long hours if its worth it. The point is, it should be the workers choice and if they don't like it, they should be able to leave and find something better. There are clearly still plenty of engineers at Twitter who have done the cost-benefit analysis and decided staying was right for the…

If it doesn't cost the company significantly extra (say, due to overtime), then the company's interest is increasing work hours for everyone to the max. In such a situation, other workers doing so, and getting discretionarily rewarded for it simply erodes the position of those who, rightfully, refuse to work more than they need to. Unless there's a fixed "here's how much extra you will be rewarded, and thus how much…

There's a mountain of evidence that companies (which by the way, often includes employee who hold equity in the companies they work) are incentivized towards increased productivity but not hours worked. That so many companies are now offering "unlimited vacation", "wellness days", and "no work Fridays" is indictive of this.

One can find fulfillment in hard work and going the extra mile without that expectation from the employer and without expectation of a tangential reward. There is often intrinsic value in hard work that can be rewarding in and of itself.

There have been times in my life where I stayed late or worked weekends on my own accord because I felt the situation warranted it. I wasn't asked to do it and I didn't get paid extra, but I felt good doing it and in the long-run, the short-term sacrifice yield wonderful long-term gains.

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