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Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#221

Post by dang »

herodoturtle wrote: post #15
anamexis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the headline misleading? You don't need a formal announcement for something to be news. Particularly since the formal announcement being referred to there is just the announcement that Twitter was acquired by Musk.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I was referring to the HN title of this post: "Twitter to lay off 25% of workforce in first round of job cuts" I opened the article thinking this was a formal announcement. But it's nothing of the sort. It's just speculation at this stage. Hope that clears things up.

We've changed the title to what the article says now. I don't know whether WaPo changed their own title or the submitted title was editorializing (the latter is against the HN guidelines - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#222

Post by [deleted] »

mywittyname wrote: post #5
outside1234 wrote: post #3

Did Twitter file a California WARN notice? If not, they need to do so and give 60 day notice to workers in California. So, don't accept anything that doesn't preserve your rights to your Tuesday equity grant. Details here: https://edd.ca.gov/en/Jobs_and_Training/Layoff_Services_WARN Key Provision: "Layoff of 50 or more employees within a 30-day period regardless of % of workforce. ...." Penalties for Violation: "A po…

Considering breaking the law is one of Musk's seemingly favorite hobbies, I wouldn't be so sure on a WARN notice. The punishments for non-compliance isn't very much.

[deleted]

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#223

Post by [deleted] »

yrgulation wrote: post #74
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Another person familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters last week said the total number of layoffs is likely to be closer to 50 percent. Unless I’m missing something, the only sources for this article are a mix of speculation and anonymous sources who can’t even agree with each other about the layoff.

This is mainly media workers exploiting current events for traffic, even if their content is misleading. We really need to sort out media corruption and incompetence.

[deleted]

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#224

Post by slg »

Balgair wrote: post #174
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Another person familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters last week said the total number of layoffs is likely to be closer to 50 percent. Unless I’m missing something, the only sources for this article are a mix of speculation and anonymous sources who can’t even agree with each other about the layoff.

I dunno. WaPo isn't the best of new reporting agencies [0], but it's certainly not the worst. They do have standards and they don't make up the large majority of their data. Meaning, they have actually talked to someone that is 'familiar' with the 'deal' at some point 'last week.' It's not pure speculation on WaPo's part, though it maybe pure-unrefined-grade-A speculation on the contact's part. If I had to bet, and m…

Yeah, insiders not knowing the full details of Musk's plan because Musk doesn't have a detailed plan yet seems more likely than WaPo just making some stuff up.

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#225

Post by legitster »

photochemsyn wrote: post #179
legitster wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't imagine the WaPo taking this same tone with regard to a Bezos acquisition or contract Uhhh... you must not ever read WaPo. They run critical coverage of Bezos and Amazon all of the time .

I see them reporting on stories that others have generated, but what I certainly don't see is anything like investigative journalism targeting any of Bezo's business interests, i.e. generating original stories, publishing embarrassing leaks ( that others have not already published ) etc. Again, see the Top Secret America investigative journalism effort from 2010. There's nothing similar that the Post has done since B…

Maybe for the simple fact that they are still predominantly a local newspaper for Washington DC. Their beat coverage is still largely going to be Federal US politics.

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#226

Post by bigmattystyles »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #212
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #23

It seems that Elon thinks that there are too many managers (per coder) there https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586686935518498816

At least in a dev situation I think 10-1 devs-to-managers is actually a pretty sizable ratio - I think ideally it's more of a 6-to-8ish to one. Now, this of course assumes that engineering managers are not solely doing employee management but also are serving some "tech lead" type roles. I.e. even if an engineering manager isn't coding I think it's essential that (a) a considerable portion of their time is spent doin…

Isn't this another version of Chesterton's fence - lots of people may seem like they serve no apparent role, until they are gone. This is not to say there aren't some that in fact do serve no role, but careful consideration is required to determine who is who imho.

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#227

Post by habitue »

yrgulation wrote: post #74
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14

> Another person familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters last week said the total number of layoffs is likely to be closer to 50 percent. Unless I’m missing something, the only sources for this article are a mix of speculation and anonymous sources who can’t even agree with each other about the layoff.

This is mainly media workers exploiting current events for traffic, even if their content is misleading. We really need to sort out media corruption and incompetence.

> This is mainly media workers exploiting current events for traffic

This is basically what news is. The media "exploits" (reports on) current events, gets traffic and then pays its employees

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#228

Post by bigmattystyles »

swozey wrote: post #195
Ancalagon wrote: post #157

What’s with the contempt for twitter employees in this thread? I really hope Musk doesn’t come for your job next

The contempt for them on twitter is even worse. A ton of anonymous twitter accounts laughing at people losing their jobs.

Meh, being laughed at by people who couldn't have gotten hired to work at twitter short of buying the company is really easy to dismiss.

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#229

Post by rglover »

AlexandrB wrote: post #164
duxup wrote: post #19

Twitter now owes about $1 billlion in debit payments per year. Cash flow last year $630 million. I think 25% staff reductions is just a starting point.

I'm constantly shocked that "leveraged buyouts" are a thing. It seems like taking a business and loading it up with debt is a recipe for failure that would introduce a lot of risk for the lender, but banks and other capital holders continue issuing the debt.

Because they expect that debt to be inflated away as the currency its denominated in goes to zero (and they know they'll get replenished with cash when they need it via the Fed [1][2]).

[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/unde...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1xgQeCiu6k

Re: Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

#230

Post by habitue »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #217
jdm2212 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything in life is tradeoffs. American software engineers get paid more than basically anyone else in the world, but we also have less job security. What's preferable just depends on your risk aversion vs marginal utility of money.

> American software engineers get paid more than basically anyone else in the world, but we also have less job security. What's preferable just depends on your risk aversion vs marginal utility of money. Of course, this comment is predicated on the assumption that America's loose labour laws are the reason for this salary disparity, and I'm not personally willing to follow you to that conclusion. I think it's far mor…

A tradeoff can exist without implying that the tradeoff is necessary.

In other words, America has A but not B, Europe has B but not A, and there doesn't happen to be a place with both A and B, but it's not impossible in principle. Workers would still need to decide if they value A or B more, even if in a perfect world they could have both.

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