Elon Musk gives ultimatum to Twitter employees: Do ‘extremely hardcore’ work or get out

TechGromit

So he's telling employees that they will have to work long hours or hit the road? What would you do? I'd be getting out, selling any company stock I had and look for greener pastures.  While working 60, 80, 100 hours a week work for some workaholics, for most of us this just isn't sustainable. It's not like this is a startup where if the employees don't put in the extra effort the company will not survive.  

JDMurray

TechGromit said:

So he's telling employees that they will have to work long hours or hit the road? What would you do?

It depends on what the pay, benefits, and possible rewards are like. I've worked very long and hard schedules for (the promise of) a large paycheck or pay-off after achieving success. It's sometimes a gamble, but you don't win big if you don't risk big.

volfkhat

Some pundits have speculated that...
Reverend Elon is trying to run Twitter the same way he runs TSLA.

it May sound great in theory...
but one should not overlook the obvious:

The majority of TSLA workers... likely have a Factory mindset.

A plurality of twitter workers... likely do NOT.

The latter have more Resources/Options... they also have a bit of Leverage:

Musk had to borrow $12 billion in order to complete the $44 billion Acquisition.
He will be paying $1 billion in interest alone (annually).
The company is Not turning a profit.
The company is Losing its Advertisers.
Some 'experts' feel musk Grossly Overpaid for company.
and Rightly or wrongly, any negative press that musk gets for twitter... negatively impacts the share price of TSLA.

Now Ask Yourself:
if twitter were to continue spiraling downward... and one day close up shop...
who would LOSE more?

The Workers... or musk?

I think this will be an interesting case study to follow.

TechGromit said:

So he's telling employees that they will have to work long hours or hit the road? What would you do?

That's actually simple...
I would Unionize.
   

TechGromit

volfkhat said:

Some pundits have speculated that...
Reverend Elon is trying to run Twitter the same way he runs TSLA.

This is exactly his problem, he should have had a clear game plan from day one. Currently he's causing chaos in the company, perhaps headcount should be cut, but there should have been a clear game plan in place to do so.   

“There’s a massive negative cash flow, and bankruptcy is not out of the question,” elon said, according to a recording heard by The New York Times.

If the companies finances are so terrible, why would you but it in the first place? You could say well the lawsuit forced him to buy it, but he shouldn't have made the $54.20 buy out offer in April without preforming some due diligence first.    

Musk came into the company like a wrecking ball. He fired/lay-off/cause resignations of key people, those that know how to run the systems to keep the company running, as well as those that help with compliance, advertiser relations. He cancelled service contracts, cuts across the board to save money. There nothing wrong with reducing expenses, reducing headcount to increase profitability, but he should have created process over a couple months to perform it in an orderly matter. 

  

volfkhat

TechGromit said:
 but he shouldn't have made the $54.20 buy out offer in April without preforming some due diligence first...    

  

i completely forgot that 420 needed to be in the offer!

nighas

TechGromit said:

So he's telling employees that they will have to work long hours or hit the road? What would you do?

I feel like he will end up getting replaced or he will find a replacement for himself. but you never know, its elon who paid 44b for an webiste, his ego is way bigger than his networth. 

nighas

maybe eventually with all the layoffs there will be no one good left in the security team and twitter will get breached.

UnixGuy

Me 10-15 yrs ago: I wouldve loved to work for someone like Elon Musk and be 'hardcore'

Me now: can't pay me enough to come to an office, no thanks

JDMurray

Having Elon-Twitter on your resume--even for just a few months--would certainly be a conversation piece. You might get interviews just so the hiring manager can ask you, "What is Elon really like?"

TechGromit

From the news reports I've been reading, just about everyone is leaving Twitter, certain the bulk of the top talent. I wonder how long twitter can continue to function without anyone knowledgeable maintaining the servers? 

JDMurray

I think that I would question the accuracy of such "news" reports.

volfkhat

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11442401/Twitter-set-lose-75-CENT-remaining-3-700-workers-hundreds-resign.html

*munching my popcorn*

TechGromit said:

From the news reports I've been reading, just about everyone is leaving Twitter, certain the bulk of the top talent. I wonder how long twitter can continue to function without anyone knowledgeable maintaining the servers? 

How long does it take for $44 billion to go to ZERO?
   

E Double U

Earth...never a dull moment. When chaos is all around us, this is my mantra:

shochan

Has anyone applied at Twitter the last few days?  You might land a new job! LOL!

https://careers.twitter.com/en/roles.html

JDMurray

volfkhat said:

.../Twitter-set-lose-75-CENT-remaining-3-700-workers-hundreds-resign.html

  Real reporters and editors never use weasel-words like "could."

JDMurray

shochan said:

Has anyone applied at Twitter the last few days?  You might land a new job! LOL!

https://careers.twitter.com/en/roles.html

I can't get any job postings to appear on that site. Anyone else have any luck with it?

chrisone

I tried looking but don't see any job postings as well. I thought the purpose of the layoffs were more about cutting down during recession? Not going to pretend like I know the business or how this stuff works. I know a lot of the political disagreements get the highlight of X amount of employees leaving, but I doubt it mattered. People were getting axed based on the sizing down approach. 

In either case the layoffs were coming so most likely there is a hiring freeze.

JDMurray

I guessing that Twitter employed around 66-75% (~5000) more people than it needed to do what it does now. If Elon does want to pivot Twitter into becoming the next PayPal, and away from being a bastion of "equity and justice" on the Internet, then a serious retooling of Twitter's workforce towards an engineering-centric culture is required. From what I can see so far, Elon is just doing at Twitter what he did at Tesla and SpaceX (wash/rinse/repeat). 

TechGromit

JDMurray said:

From what I can see so far, Elon is just doing at Twitter what he did at Tesla and SpaceX (wash/rinse/repeat). 

What worked for one business may not work the same for another. 

Back in 2005, I worked for a casino that was sold to a real estate investment fund.  A few years earlier this fund purchased a casino in Reno, Nevada invested a minimal amount of money to the property and turned around and sold it for a tidy profit a few years later. It appeared they were planning to follow the same strategy with our casino and two others they purchased at the same time. They cut costs everywhere, laid off staff, cancelled service contracts, wage freezes, cut salaries, changed staff hours, etc. I was working in IT at the time and I was asked to recommend what equipment to buy for the next year, my recommendation was a very lean budget, 30 new PC's and 10 printers, upper managements response was pick your worst 10 PC's to replace. We had 300 computers or so, generally you try to replace 20 percent of them a year, so by the 5th year you refresh all your inventory, so 60 new PC's would have been a realistic number. I for one decided it was time to bail and look elsewhere, I left in 2006. Atlantic city wasn't the same market as Reno, what what may have worked there, didn't work in AC. Reno is a small city in Nevada, the next major metropolitan area is at least 2 hours away. So whatever policies they put into put to squeeze productivity out of Reno employees certainly wouldn't work in AC, where down town Philadelphia is less than an hour away, there are lots of employment opportunities elsewhere, employees in AC certainly didn't have to put up with wage freeze and salary cuts. They look elsewhere most of them did. 
   
By 2011 they all three casinos they owned were foreclosed on. Time will only tell if Elon strategy will work, but personally I think was handled poorly, he could have phased in the changes he wanted over a longer periods of time and archived better results with far less disruptions in staff and revenue.   
  

JDMurray

TechGromit said:
What worked for one business may not work the same for another. 

I'm gonna trust that Elon knows from experience what he is doing. Risk-taking seems to be something he's really good at.

volfkhat

"I'm gonna trust that Elon knows from experience what he is doing. Risk-taking seems to be something he's really good at."

   

https://twitter.com/amanpour/status/1592954247947374592
I'm gonna roll with ProfessorG on this one...

JDMurray

That's all editorializing and opinions and not actual reporting or journalism. It's unlikely you will find Amanpour saying anything good about any non-Liberal/non-Globalist anyway.

UnixGuy

JDMurray said:

TechGromit said:
What worked for one business may not work the same for another. 

I'm gonna trust that Elon knows from experience what he is doing. Risk-taking seems to be something he's really good at.

Gonna have to agree with JD here. I still remember how everyone I know bet on Tesla's failure a few years ago....and how many made fun of SpaceX.

Elon Musk might be the smartest person alive. He is not dumb. Not saying he doesn't make mistakes, but he is not the idiot people are making him out to be.

A parallel was Steve Jobs, he was eccentric, people hated him.. Apple is no good....then boom, he changed our world forever. Like him or hate him, he was exceptional.

matt333

Twitter is a slowly failing company far before Elon bought it, they have an App. Thats it. Apps are easy to make and even easier to stop using.

They needed to downsize in a major way regardless of the buyout. Elon is just the guy that will make the unpopular choice and fire a ton of people.

It's unfortunately for the impacted staff but needed if they want to be successful in the landscape they are competing in. 

Elon liked Twitter and decided to buy it, was it a good choice... in my opinion NO but he is an adult and the Tesla shareholders (myself included) will just have to deal with the short term losses. Tesla will be fine regardless, they have the best product with a huge market that will continue to drive their business. Twitter news is just a short term distraction for everyone that follows it. 

JoJoCal19

TechGromit said:

JDMurray said:

From what I can see so far, Elon is just doing at Twitter what he did at Tesla and SpaceX (wash/rinse/repeat). 

What worked for one business may not work the same for another. 

Going to agree here. The difference is he BUILT Tesla in his own way. You cannot just take over a company that has the complete opposite culture, and try to instill a different culture and make such drastic changes on Day 1. That just doesn't work. In the end it's pretty much a dumpster fire over there. And that's just the Twitter mess. Tesla is going to end up the same way or he is going to get canned by the board sooner than later. TSLA is down more than half since the split (post split price around $400, at $158 presently). He is literally attacking the very people/groups that purchase like 80%-90% of Tesla vehicles and customers are leaving in droves. 

volfkhat

JoJoCal19 said:
Going to agree here. The difference is he BUILT Tesla in his own way. You cannot just take over a company that has the complete opposite culture, and try to instill a different culture and make such drastic changes on Day 1. 

I get the feeling that... in 'his' mind...

he actually did "TAKE OVER" a Company.
and then he made "Drastic Changes" to the culture.

So... since it worked for TSLA... then he must be a genius & expects the same formula will yield the same outcome for twitter.

Redemption

Lots of speculation; he has a money printing machine and two net new companies that he has not made public yet. what he paid for Twitter is chump change.  He can walk away from Tesla, close Twitter, and IPO Starlink or SpaceX and make more money than he did with Tesla.  With SpaceX he will be the largest ISP in the world, and he can disrupt the cellphone market by deploying his own cellphone network that will reach anywhere with little cash outlay. You are all thinking small when you look at Elon.  He could lose a battle, but as far as the war is concerned, he is way ahead of the curve.

As far as Twitter, he will weed out the people who are not smart enough to improve the company, and those who stay will fall in line with his vision.  You all forget that people can always quit if they are unhappy.  It is his company, and he can run it however he wants to. 

powerfool

Well, I came to the discussion rather late... but yeah, his entire purpose with the statements was to clean house within having to simply fire people.  If you don't want to be there, leave.  Easy statement.  If you haven't cut away too much, you didn't cut enough.

Now, I understand the sentiment and the results he has driven.  However, I could never work for him.  Part of the reason is in the similarities that I have with him... I know that I couldn't work for me (not that I have produced anywhere remotely resembling what he has, but my approach is similar).

I do think his approach to remote work is just flat out wrong, though.  It isn't a moral decision.  People make choices and should be free to make choices.  If you work in a job that cannot be done remotely, that is part of the inputs that lead to outcomes.  It doesn't mean that you will always work "in the office".  Every field will offer ways to be remote... it just may be at the tail end of your career when you write about what you did.  In a manufacturing company, I can also see some more drive to "in office" preference.  However, this is a limiting factor.  Look at the Bay Area... look at Seattle.  They're suffering from too much consolidation.  The cost of living in each place is astronomical and the culture is such that most of the people interested in living there likely already do.  Any people willing to move will be far fewer than in the past when you take all of that into account.  So Elon and Ellison, and some others, decided to move to Austin... and they're going to do the same there.  It would be far more beneficial to more distributed, especially for X/Twitter.  Lower operating costs because you don't need office space for everyone and you can hire the best from anywhere without having to pay them based on the high cost of living.