Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans • Hacker News Board

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

#341

Post by dmix » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

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.

Obviously that was a just formality to give them a title while they are in the building advising, it came from the company index system not their formal job description... another nothing burger.

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

#342

Post by LeicaLatte » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

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

#343

Post by fourstar » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

saurik wrote: post #283

dirheist wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those being laid off for cause are the 3 senior level executives (the old CEO, the lead counsel, and the content policy head). Those 3 had a 100+ million cumulative severance package which they are now no longer eligible to receive, although none of them are strapped for cash.

Elsewhere in this thread, people are discussing a potentially-credible (but maybe you disagree) report on this from Gergely Orosz that does not paint this as "only the 3 senior executives". https://twitter.com/gergelyorosz/status/1587042365084209153?... > I talked with an engineering manager who was at Twitter for 5+ years, and got laid off on Sunday "for cause". They were too exhausted from working over the weekend…

No post body was provided.

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

#344

Post by cercatrova » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

beowulfey wrote: post #238

TeMPOraL wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the role, the company, and the timing. A single worker in an important position leaving on the spot, dropping some critical work half-way done and taking all the context and specific knowledge with them, could easily torpedo a million dollar deal. Or, a single employee leaving could trigger a cascade, and soon you're short a whole project team. In general , I'd say at-will still favors employers, who are i…

Employees often depend on prior employers as references and for social connections. It is rare that anyone would actually walk out without notice, as doing so would almost always hurt their careers even if that job was truly shitty (the old adage to “never burn bridges” does apply!). Employers do not experience this same effect. Even if lots of people get laid off from a company without notice, there will almost alwa…

> Employees often depend on prior employers as references

Not really. I have not once been asked for references from previous companies.

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

#345

Post by hyperpape » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

dirheist wrote: post #274

saurik wrote: post #253

6 months ago it was all painted (maybe seemingly, though, by prior executives who weren't speaking for Musk) as if this wouldn't be a big deal for employees, which to me makes this idea that people are being rapidly fired "for cause" after a suddenly-imposed weekend work shift deadline extra shitty :/. (Even if I do sometimes claim that Twitter is incompetent as an organization or bloated with idle staff, these are h…

Those being laid off for cause are the 3 senior level executives (the old CEO, the lead counsel, and the content policy head). Those 3 had a 100+ million cumulative severance package which they are now no longer eligible to receive, although none of them are strapped for cash.

Matt Levine has a good explanation (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-10-31/elon-m...), which is that they receive a golden parachute for a simple reason. Their self-interest was to say "la-la-la, we can't hear you" when Musk comes trying to buy Twitter. That would've given them a chance to maintain high paid positions for years. Instead, they sold to him, knowing they'd probably be given the boot.

Now, at some level, it still stinks that the CEO is getting paid so many tens of millions of dollars for less than a year's worth of work. To solve that, you'd have to cut CEO pay in the first place, because just removing the parachute would incentivize clinging to their existing paychecks.

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

#346

Post by snotrockets » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:33 PM UTC

phpisthebest wrote: post #100

anamexis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not speculation: > ...according to four people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them, as well as tweets from some of the people involved.

I am sorry but i am over the "people familiar" .. " condition of anonymity" crap in news Either put a name to it, or dont report on it

Asking sources to publish their name is a very sure way to not have sources at all.

Quote Orwell, Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. You need to get people to tell you about all those things, and as that someone who dislike them being printed has power (it ain't news otherwise,) you need to find a way to make people talk to you. "Help me to rekt your career and life" just don't cut it.

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

#347

Post by chasd00 » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:35 PM UTC

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.

it's not apples to apples but the other energy firms did the same to Enron employees when they were walking out with their boxes of stuff. iirc HR departments in competing firms put out gleeful notices that former Enron employees would not be considered for open positions. Everyone loves to point and laugh when someone a tick up on the perceived totem pole falls down a few notches.

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

#348

Post by superfrank » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:36 PM UTC

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.

I don't work at Twitter, so I don't really care what they call themselves. That being said, at every company I've ever worked at the people who have responsibilities like "running tech companies and [...] advising on strutting the team" usually have manager, director, or VP titles. It is a little odd to give a staff software engineer title to someone who isn't able to write code.

Like I said though, I have no horse in this race, so whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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

#349

Post by brookst » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:37 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #147

anamexis wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it doesn't, this comes from the Washington Post, speaking to people familiar with the layoff planning.

Given everything over the last decade, people should not trust anything when it involves a) highly controversial/partisan/breathless news and b) dealing in anonymous sources and rumors.

I think we can rely on peoples' own smarts to build in that skepticism. There's not a lot of benefit to qualifying every piece of information to say that it might be wrong.

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

#350

Post by joegahona » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 7:37 PM UTC

cercatrova wrote: post #328

simonw wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting commentary on this from someone who used to work at Twitter: - https://twitter.com/joshelman/status/1586812933043933184 > Changing the logged out home page of Twitter to show more content is likely one of those “easy fixes” that has symbolic effect but very little to no metrics effect. I ran A/B tests on this in 2010. Usually the best way to grow Twitter active users is make people sign up first

Technical people, especially engineers and those on HN, hate sign up forms but having grown a product to X thousand users, the more you push the sign up form, the more people sign up. You can even plot a linear relationship between the two, which I've done before.

I noticed the same thing in the world of publishing (both print and online). It's the reasons pop-ups have never gone away -- they work. It's the reason those annoying inserts in print magazines that fall in your lap have never gone away -- they work.