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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

#331

Post by mcguire »

boppo1 wrote: post #298
mcguire wrote: post #288

Pardon me, but isn't this the standard operating procedure for leveraged buyouts of "inefficient" businesses? Cut expenses to the bone, resulting in a higher profit margin on the same revenue, coast on that revenue while dismembering the business for anything valuable, and then load any transferable debt to the carcass and declare bankruptcy?

Well yeah, except he's talking about bringing back Vine, which is incongruous with the typical LBO strat. Before reels or tiktok or stories or shorts, there was vine and people loved it. But it didn't make any money.

Interesting idea. But, wouldn't that be competing with TikTok? And, Vine hasn't been a thing in what, 6 years? That's not so much "bringing back" as developing something new.

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

#332

Post by DesiLurker »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #213
outside1234 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I think Elon's goal is to screw the employees out of their next grant

1. Elon already tweeted that this is false. 2. As another commenter mentioned, I don't even think this would be possible given California WARN Act requirements, but I'm less sure on the legal requirements here.

>Elon already tweeted that this is false.

Did you expect him to say it is true?

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

#333

Post by dmix »

mdaEyebot wrote: post #255
dmix wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit and Instagram is even worse. Besides cookie boxes (which all have different UIs and rarely a good no button) it's probably the most annoying thing on an ad-blocked internet. How do the designers who work at these tech companies not understand that repeatedly annoying non-user visitors doesn't make them want to sign up? Nor incentivize others to link to it?

Considering where their revenue comes from, have you considered that they may not want people who run ad-blockers to sign up? They'll tolerate you if you produce content to help keep the paying users engaged, but plenty of businesses choose not to pursue customers who are unlikely to generate profit.

What do ad blockers have to do with invasive sign up modals? They show up regardless. I think you missed the point.

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

#334

Post by collegeburner »

hedora wrote: post #267
gamblor956 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can verify that Twitter is laying people off. Several contacts at Twitter were laid off this weekend and hoping they I could submit their resumes to my current employer. They were told that these were performance based terminations, despite not receiving any negative evaluations during their time at Twitter. They were also told they needed to sign NDAs in order to receive any severance. Can't confirm the %.

They should probably take a look at the lawsuit around Tesla's illegal layoffs. Your description sounds similar to that. It's probably worth it to find a labor attorney.

twitter could invoke the "faltering company" exemption given that its now saddled with many $B LBO debt, or unexpected contracts loss given that some advertisers are pausing spend.

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

#335

Post by dmix »

ethanbond wrote: post #233
dmix wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an obvious meaningless formality, not sure why it's news.

Because it's kind of odd for someone who makes such a big deal about high performing engineering orgs to hire his non-technical buddies into top tier engineering roles? Why not hire them into "Chief of Staff" or "Chief of Fuck You Parag" roles?

Do you seriously think that these two advisors he brought in for a weekend are now their top engineers?

They both have plenty of experience running tech companies and are advising on structuring the team… I know everyone’s trying to jump on the hate bandwagon but this is a stretch.

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

#336

Post by throwaway4736 »

spamizbad wrote: post #327

Interesting that David Sacks and Jason Calacanis are "Staff software engineers" - assuming that's accurate. To my knowledge, neither have worked as professional software engineers. Calacanis is a journalist turned entrepreneur/investor and Sacks is a former management consultant who became a C-suite during the dotcom boom who later became an entrepreneur/investor.

It’s a shame that Twitter is no longer public because I can’t imagine something more profitable than shorting a company than Jason Calacanis is an executive of.

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

#337

Post by chasd00 »

jiveturkey wrote: post #219
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You read it backwards. He claimed 10-1 managers-to-devs.

"manager" can be subjective. You could claim a non-junior dev with a couple junior dev reporting to them and being mentored is a "manager".

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

#338

Post by hef19898 »

forbiddenvoid wrote: post #260
sosodev wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is requiring an NDA for severance even legal? That's seriously sketchy

Not only an NDA - many companies also require you to sign anti-disparagement clauses, meaning you can have severance clawed back if you speak negatively of the company.

Something like that would never hold up in court, in fact it might even make the whole firing illegal in the first place. Unless, of course, so NDA's would also prevent the employer from speaking negatively about the employee, but those are extremely rare.

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

#340

Post by ethanbond »

dmix wrote: post #335
ethanbond wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's kind of odd for someone who makes such a big deal about high performing engineering orgs to hire his non-technical buddies into top tier engineering roles? Why not hire them into "Chief of Staff" or "Chief of Fuck You Parag" roles?

Do you seriously think that these two advisors he brought in for a weekend are now their top engineers? They both have plenty of experience running tech companies and are advising on structuring the team… I know everyone’s trying to jump on the hate bandwagon but this is a stretch.

Well, no, because if I thought that was the case then it wouldn't be silly that they have a top engineering title. I'm saying that it is silly. I agree this is a bottom-of-the-list issue, but it does strike me as weird even for Elon.
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