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Twitter Office Supply Auction

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Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#201

Post by denton-scratch »

nonethewiser wrote: post #182
sio8ohPi wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's wild. It's untaxed comp that minimizes the time employees need to spend thinking about food during the day. He's mandating employees come back to the office for long hours, but now they need to (at least) order and receive their own lunches and dinners? If he's trying to retain some sort of high-intensity hardcore ninja startup bullshit, I would think free food would be the last thing cut. Or is he planning fo…

> untaxed comp that minimizes the time employees need to spend thinking about food during the day The meals still exist. They're just not free. So they still dont need to spend time thinking about food. And the company is reimbursed for it. Obviously it's worse for the employee. But it's not some "own goal."

> The meals still exist. They're just not free.

Evidently Twitter are expecting to serve less of them, otherwise they wouldn't be decommisioning what appears to be a commercial kitchen.

My guess is that Musk still hasn't got rid of all the staff he wants to lose. And I suspect that the ones he's already lost weren't the ones he was hoping to lose.

I smell panic.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#202

Post by j-bos »

mindslight wrote: post #178
j-bos wrote: post #138

For those interested in buying but not in SF, you'll need to arrange your own pickup, craigslist style: "Buyers may either pick up Goods at the designated auction site themselves or can contract with a third party agent to manage the removal process for them."

Yeah, this isn't eBay. Caveat emptor, as-is where-is, FOB where it sits, payment by wire only, be happy if you can load out yourself. One would think there would be some times when the lots are open to inspection. It looks like bidding ends on Jan 17th, so there's plenty of time for them to add that.

According to the documentation you can view the items by appointment only.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#203

Post by bombcar »

sio8ohPi wrote: post #109
bombcar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They famously shut down the free meals.

That's wild. It's untaxed comp that minimizes the time employees need to spend thinking about food during the day. He's mandating employees come back to the office for long hours, but now they need to (at least) order and receive their own lunches and dinners? If he's trying to retain some sort of high-intensity hardcore ninja startup bullshit, I would think free food would be the last thing cut. Or is he planning fo…

Might only be untaxed for overtime:

https://www.henssler.com/employer-provided-meals-are-they-ta...

I know years ago I worked a restaurant and they accounted for the meal we got (like $3 lol) on the tax forms.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#204

Post by jrnichols »

electroly wrote: post #131
Consultant32452 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk said publicly the free food was rarely eaten. They had more people cooking breakfast than eating it. That’s probably exaggeration, but it’s probably true that it had little utilization.

It was rarely eaten because nobody was in the office, wasn't it? If he forces everyone to return...

SF Mayor London Breed was talking about this recently as well. It seems that the local restaurants also want people back in the offices because they're struggling quite a bit. If there's no free lunch at work, employees might patronize some of the local restaurants.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#205

Post by ffggffggj »

moltar wrote: post #186
SilverBirch wrote: post #13

This is pretty unsurprising, they're not really going to raise any serious money from this (what do we reckon? 1FTE Salary at most?) but they've got office space for 7.5k people and less than 3k less. Musk keeps saying "If you code come to the 10th floor" - which basically implies that their entire team of engineers fit onto 1 floor of the building and that there a load of empty floors now that don't need kitchens or…

You'd be surprised. Some of that restaurant equipment is in high demand, and is also pretty pricey. Anything pro grade can be tens of thousands of dollars each. Just some of those espresso machines are $10K [1] and $25K [2] each. Freezer is $24K. Of course, all these are "new" prices. [1] https://www.espressoparts.com/products/la-marzocco-linea-cla... [2] https://www.espressoparts.com/products/la-marzocco-strada-ee..…

Who is opening a restaurant right now with labor costs and borrowing costs where they are?

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#206

Post by rsynnott »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #86
lapcat wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has an army of unpaid moderators. Not to mention the Reddit users who upvote and downvote. Also, politicians and other important public figures don't use Reddit like they use Twitter.

Anyone know why those unpaid mods do what they do? It's like a cult.

It’s maybe a little unusual that they’re doing it effectively in service of a for-profit company, but otherwise it doesn’t seem strange. There’s a pretty long (>30 year) tradition of volunteer internet moderators; moderated usenet groups, irc, web forums (Reddit is really just a very big web forum, when it comes to it), now mastodon instances.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#207

Post by rsynnott »

elygre wrote: post #91
mythhouse wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at twitter's data engineering org in 2018. It was the most relaxed work culture I've experienced. Great WLB ( code for its ok to coast) . Spent my winters working from ski resorts and ski lodges. My mental and physical health were at all time high.

Why is “great WLB” code for “ok to coast”? What does one write for actual great WLB, without the coasting?

I’m not sure there’s consensus on definitions, but a lot of people (particularly in Big Tech land) do seem to use the term “coasting” to describe working a normal 40 hour week, as opposed to the sort of thing that goes on in the likes of Amazon.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#208

Post by orwin »

nonethewiser wrote: post #184
sio8ohPi wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience working in such places has been that most people bring better food. Soup, pasta, rice and beans, etc. I'm sure some people bring sandwiches and eat at their desk, but most people prefer hot food. Food prep at home is cheap, but has a labor cost in time. Are employees really going to do their own food prep in the middle of 80 hour weeks? When I prepped my own meals I was much more inclined to go home at…

You're ignoring that they can still get lunch at Twitter though. It's just not free.

I used to work as an intern in a PaaS startup. We had meals paid for by the company. We ate in 35 to 50 minutes, then got back to the office where we started our work environment, putting some work before the official end of the lunch break.

I changed jobs and now work as a "freelancer" (i have missions, the last one had an objective and lasted 20 months, the new one is a bit less clear). The meal is practically free for the employees, but is roughly 12€ for freelancers, and of really bad quality. So we get out with the full team (including employees), walk, or sometime take the bus to a restaurant (we change each week), eat there, then come back. It's often a bit more expensive (15 to 25€), but both the product quality and the preparation are better. Our lunch break at my previous mission lasted on average 90 minutes (we were quite far from good restaurant), on the new mission it seems to be a little less (we're closer to Paris and there is a lot of restaurant around).

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#209

Post by duxup »

lazide wrote: post #194
duxup wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Twitters priorities are balance sheet related. Moving would seem like a bizarre distraction.

Most of this mess just seems like a bizarre distraction.

It is shocking how entirely unnecessary it all has been.

There’s no reason for the whole situation. The company is in a bad spot now.

Re: Twitter Office Supply Auction

#210

Post by rsynnott »

kgantchev wrote: post #116
sio8ohPi wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's wild. It's untaxed comp that minimizes the time employees need to spend thinking about food during the day. He's mandating employees come back to the office for long hours, but now they need to (at least) order and receive their own lunches and dinners? If he's trying to retain some sort of high-intensity hardcore ninja startup bullshit, I would think free food would be the last thing cut. Or is he planning fo…

> That's wild. It's untaxed comp... So tax evasion?

… No. Many jurisdictions, provided that certain rules are followed, allow employers to provide food for employees on premises without it being deemed a benefit in kind (ie taxable).

Some go further. I believe in France employers can still give employees vouchers (in practice run over the debit card system these days) for restaurants, and this is also not deemed a benefit in kind.

A lot of this sort of thing is down to long-standing practice, really. It has long been customary for many employers to feed their staff, so this isn’t considered a benefit in kind.

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