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Musk communicates to Twitter employees that ‘bankruptcy is not out of the question’ - Page 2
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Musk communicates to Twitter employees that ‘bankruptcy is not out of the question’

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  • @PulsedMedia said: How about bans of Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones as well, to name just a few well known examples.

    And were they banned for their political beliefs? Jordan Peterson was banned for hate speech. Alex Jones was banned for operating his conspiracy theories/fake news site. His most well known conspiracy theory was that some school shooting was staged. These are your examples of right wing censorship but they weren't even banned for their political beliefs.

    @PulsedMedia said: You agree with "The Message" and are part of the problem.

    So my problem is not believing that school shootings in America are real? Am I supposed to believe that actors are being hired to stage school shootings?

    @PulsedMedia said: One funny example of this bias was that Biden got fact checked on Twitter, a journalist screenshotted this and posted on facebook, meanwhile the tweet got deleted from @POTUS (which i hear is potentially illegal), and facebook fact checked the journalist as if it was false narrative.

    You mention this as if it is a big deal but you need to realize that politicians are outright lying or making false statements everyday. If politifact is to be believed, Biden makes false statements 41% of the time. (Well, when politifact decided to fact check him, that is)

    @PulsedMedia said: Media in general is biased AF.

    I agree, and I would say much of the mainstream media is left-biased. Despite this, I don't think twitter is left-biased. You have not provided any solid evidence thus far.

    Thanked by 3pbx TimboJones greentea
  • Tony40Tony40 Member
    edited November 2022

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

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/tech/elon-musk-email-ultimatum-twitter

  • emgemg Veteran
    edited November 2022

    @Tony40 said:

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

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/tech/elon-musk-email-ultimatum-twitter

    I once worked for a company with many government contracts. In an absolutely idiotic move, one of the senior executives decided to mandate that salaried workers "volunteer" a mandatory 45 hour work week instead of the official 40 hour work week. The thinking was that everyone would work each day from 7:30 to 5:30 (17:30) rather than 8:00 to 5:00 (17:00). Hours were flexible, but you get the idea. It would have been a violation of law to make it absolutely mandatory, but there was a clear and unquestioned expectation that all salaried employees would "volunteer" ... or else.

    At the time, I was working on a project that was severely understaffed and behind schedule. We were trying to get more people through the pipeline, but adding someone to the project was a process that took a long time. In the meantime, all of us worked long hours, above and beyond a regular work week. My typical workday on that project was 12 hours.

    Reaction to the new work week edict was swift. Salaried people immediately cut back to exactly 45 hours across the entire company. There was no coordination or discussion; they just did it. Output dropped like a rock. Morale dropped even faster and lower. The only amusement that came from it were the convoluted explanations from the top about how volunteering can be mandatory.

    The government reaction was swift and unanticipated. Because the company was suddenly getting 45 hours of labor for the same salaries, the net hourly labor labor rate for salaried employees dropped by more than 10%. Since that labor rate was figured into the cost of many government contracts, the government demanded refunds and lowered repricing for many active government contracts and projects that it had with the company.

    Within weeks, the edict was rescinded, but the damage was done. Actually, the company morphed it into weasel words that made it a "suggestion" or "recommendation" or whatever they called it, to replace the mandatory directive from the top. It was an attempt to save face and avoid accountability. It was also a slap in the face to every person who had given so much of themselves to the company.

    The message was clear. It used to be an honor and a privilege to be interviewed, let alone be hired by that company. You got to work among the most talented, elite people, in a company run by people who had worked their way up from the bottom, earned their positions, and had the technical experience and knowledge to show for it.

    At that moment, we all knew that the beancounters had pushed out the executives who had come up from the ranks. They had no understanding that the pool of talented employees was THE essential company asset. The beancounter leadership had just thrown that priceless asset into a dumpster fire. That signaled the beginning of the end for a formerly great company. The writing on the wall was clear. I did not stay around for the long decay and eventual funeral.

  • “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

    I've dealt with enough shit like this in previous companies that my tolerance for it is now approximately zero. If I heard that now, I'd just do the bare minimum and if I don't get a passing grade, they can pay severance.

    In this particular example, it's clear that Elon's goal is just to get most people to quit. He wanted to fire 75% but ended up only firing half. He's tried enforcing an end to WFH, and that didn't get enough people to leave, so now he's trying to make life as unpleasant as he can until his target of quitters is reached. It's probably all just because he realised he doesn't have enough money to pay severance to everyone.

    I'm not really sure why he's doing all this though. Now the news is out, very few people are going to want to join twitter once all the talent has left and they realise they desperately need more people. Or maybe his plan all along was to just completely destroy the brand.

  • emgemg Veteran
    edited November 2022

    @ralf said: Or maybe his plan all along was to just completely destroy the brand.

    I doubt even Elon Musk would be willing to burn 44 billion of his own dollars for that privilege.

    I don't like to jump into these threads, but my outsider's assessment is that Elon Musk:

    • Offered too much for Twitter.
    • Did not do a good job forecasting the impact of his offer on Twitter from the time the offer was made until the deal concluded and he gained control of it.
    • Did a poor job predicting the likelihood that an attempt to withdraw the offer would succeed. He also failed to anticipate its potential impact on Twitter before making the decision to try it. The withdrawal attempt made the situation far worse.
    • Seriously underestimated the complexity of the challenge he now faces. In my opinion, it is due to poor strategic planning that should have started the instant the offer was tendered.
    • Is reacting to events, rather than driving them. He is running "open loop" and does not appear to be following any long term strategic plan. See the bullet point above.

    In my personal opinion, Elon Musk loved the idea of owning Twitter and its powerful voice. He wanted to change Twitter's characteristics to suit his vision, without understanding the nuances and complexity of that vision, nor the complexity of the problems that Twitter had at the time, made far worse by his takeover.

    Thanked by 2ralf equalz
  • defaultdefault Veteran
    edited November 2022

    @ralf said:
    Or maybe his plan all along was to just completely destroy the brand.

    This is what I believe too. He can destroy the brand while looking good good for freedom of speech, because he tried to fight censorship from governments and corporations. He could afford to lose 44 billions for more popularity.

  • @Tony40 said:

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

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/tech/elon-musk-email-ultimatum-twitter

    Sweet, another Porn Hub.

  • TimboJonesTimboJones Member
    edited November 2022

    @emg said:

    @Tony40 said:

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

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/tech/elon-musk-email-ultimatum-twitter

    I once worked for a company with many government contracts. In an absolutely idiotic move, one of the senior executives decided to mandate that salaried workers "volunteer" a mandatory 45 hour work week instead of the official 40 hour work week. The thinking was that everyone would work each day from 7:30 to 5:30 (17:30) rather than 8:00 to 5:00 (17:00). Hours were flexible, but you get the idea. It would have been a violation of law to make it absolutely mandatory, but there was a clear and unquestioned expectation that all salaried employees would "volunteer" ... or else.

    At the time, I was working on a project that was severely understaffed and behind schedule. We were trying to get more people through the pipeline, but adding someone to the project was a process that took a long time. In the meantime, all of us worked long hours, above and beyond a regular work week. My typical workday on that project was 12 hours.

    Reaction to the new work week edict was swift. Salaried people immediately cut back to exactly 45 hours across the entire company. There was no coordination or discussion; they just did it. Output dropped like a rock. Morale dropped even faster and lower. The only amusement that came from it were the convoluted explanations from the top about how volunteering can be mandatory.

    The government reaction was swift and unanticipated. Because the company was suddenly getting 45 hours of labor for the same salaries, the net hourly labor labor rate for salaried employees dropped by more than 10%. Since that labor rate was figured into the cost of many government contracts, the government demanded refunds and lowered repricing for many active government contracts and projects that it had with the company.

    Within weeks, the edict was rescinded, but the damage was done. Actually, the company morphed it into weasel words that made it a "suggestion" or "recommendation" or whatever they called it, to replace the mandatory directive from the top. It was an attempt to save face and avoid accountability. It was also a slap in the face to every person who had given so much of themselves to the company.

    The message was clear. It used to be an honor and a privilege to be interviewed, let alone be hired by that company. You got to work among the most talented, elite people, in a company run by people who had worked their way up from the bottom, earned their positions, and had the technical experience and knowledge to show for it.

    At that moment, we all knew that the beancounters had pushed out the executives who had come up from the ranks. They had no understanding that the pool of talented employees was THE essential company asset. The beancounter leadership had just thrown that priceless asset into a dumpster fire. That signaled the beginning of the end for a formerly great company. The writing on the wall was clear. I did not stay around for the long decay and eventual funeral.

    You definitely had incompetent management. Usually, there's tons of slop in government contracts. There's normally no need to have unpaid overtime unless you fucked up royally and need to make up for it out of pocket. And if they billed for actual labour, everyone would have made more money. In some cases, you can submit for additional expenses that were out of vendor control but required by the government...

    And that's not even to say that the contract negotiators are so bad that they underestimated the required work and still allowed for a cost clawback rather than adjusting the required hours needed to complete the job? That's the wrong direction for successfully completing the job.

    Government is used to paying fair if you can show costs. They don't like surprises for shit they were never told about.

  • emgemg Veteran

    @TimboJones said:

    You definitely had incompetent management. Usually, there's tons of slop in government contracts. There's normally no need to have unpaid overtime unless you fucked up royally and need to make up for it out of pocket. And if they billed for actual labour, everyone would have made more money. In some cases, you can submit for additional expenses that were out of vendor control but required by the government...

    And that's not even to say that the contract negotiators are so bad that they underestimated the required work and still allowed for a cost clawback rather than adjusting the required hours needed to complete the job? That's the wrong direction for successfully completing the job.

    Government is used to paying fair if you can show costs. They don't like surprises for shit they were never told about.

    I won't disagree with your statement about management, but will add that you are making assumptions based on incomplete information. You were not there. I have long since tired of arguing with you, so that's all I have to say.

  • NEW: Twitter just alerted employees that effective immediately, all office buildings are temporarily closed and badge access is suspended. No details given as to why.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Thanked by 1TimboJones
  • Musk heard of the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field and said, "hold my beer".

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