Twitter Employees Resigning

[daylatedollarshort]

I couldn't add this to the last thread speculating this might happen, because the old Elon Musk - Twitter thread got shut down due to politics, so here is a new thread. Let's try to keep this one open.

“Entire teams representing critical infrastructure are voluntarily departing the company, leaving the company at serious risk of being able to recover,” the engineer, who said they were handing in their resignation on Thursday, wrote to CNBC.

The engineer added that many leaving Twitter did not feel the need to stay, and that they only knew of two people staying, one because the company sponsored their U.S. visa. “We are skilled professionals with lots of options, so Elon has given us no reasons to stay and many to leave,” they wrote. - https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/17/new-wave-of-resignations-hits-twitter-after-musk-ultimatum.html

For an otherwise smart guy, I don't know what Elon Musk was thinking with his no work from home and you must commit to work insanely long hour forms for employees to sign. Engineers in high demand / low supply fields can quite easily just switch jobs for higher pay per hour and better working conditions.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

People can be really smart in one area and really stupid in other areas.
People skills don’t come naturally to everyone. Those people should hire and listen to people who have those skills. IMHO.

 

[mojavesue]

People can be really smart in one area and really stupid in other areas.
People skills don’t come naturally to everyone. Those people should hire and listen to people who have those skills. IMHO.

Spot on!

 

[Montecfo]

Musk bought a mess.. He will have to break some eggs, and he is.

 

[ERD50]

Musk bought a mess.. He will have to break some eggs, and he is.

Yes, this could be his way of cleaning it up. Or he is just messing it up. Considering his successes to date, and having no inside knowledge of how Twitter worked or didn't work, I'll wait and see.

-ERD50

 

[VanWinkle]

He owns it, he can do what he wants. He may ruin the company or bring it back strong. Disgruntled employees are not necessarily the best source of the truth. He may not be truthful either.

 

[youbet]

“Entire teams representing critical infrastructure are voluntarily departing the company, leaving the company at serious risk of being able to recover,” the engineer, who said they were handing in their resignation on Thursday, wrote to CNBC.

The engineer added that many leaving Twitter did not feel the need to stay,

Organizations like Twitter often benefit from a major shake-up. And sometimes not. The employees are at zero risk. All can easily find other jobs paying twice as much, requiring half the hours and all done from home (or wherever they want to be). I'm at zero risk because I could care less if Twitter ceases to exist or reforms and prospers. Elon has little risk because even if he loses every cent he has or will put into Twitter, his life won't change. He won't have to start buying cheap, single ply TP! There are no hapless stock holders to fret about.

Why is anyone worried about it? It seems like a non-event being made into a big deal.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Organizations like Twitter often benefit from a major shake-up. And sometimes not. The employees are at zero risk. All can easily find other jobs paying twice as much, requiring half the hours and all done from home (or wherever they want to be). I'm at zero risk because I could care less if Twitter ceases to exist or reforms and prospers. Elon has little risk because even if he loses every cent he has or will put into Twitter, his life won't change. He won't have to start buying cheap, single ply TP! There are no hapless stock holders to fret about.

Why is anyone worried about it? It seems like a non-event being made into a big deal.

Because we are mostly retirees with time on our hands to discuss these things, which is why I assume you are participating in this thread, too.

I used to be a tech manager and recruiter for developers in the Bay Area. Except for some low economic periods, it was usually no small feat to find, recruit, train and retain qualified tech talent. I can't even imagine instituting policies to drive good employees away like Musk has at Twitter.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

Why is anyone worried about it? It seems like a non-event being made into a big deal.

Welcome to the internet where we critique people we don’t know. [emoji23]

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Now Twitter is closing all of its office buildings because so many employees have resigned en mass they are worried about sabotage - "The number of engineers required to operate Twitter’s critical systems are down to two or even zero, the Washington Post reported. “I know of six critical systems (like ‘serving tweets’ levels of critical) which no longer have any engineers,” a former employee told the Post. “There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.”

All Twitter Offices Closed as Hundreds of Employees Resign - https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-offices-closed-hundreds-employees-010903837.html

So much for no more work from home. Now employees can't work from the office either.

 

[RobbieB]

And I don't see hordes of folks lining up for interviews either.

 

[SecondAttempt]

The son of a friend of mine works for Musk at SpaceX (I think). He is a relatively young engineer. He occasionally interacts with Musk, maybe every couple of months. The kid speaks highly of Musk and says he is respectful of young voices and tolerates respectful challenges based on technical issues.

This seems completely contrary to what we are hearing at Twitter. I'm not sure what to make of it. Perhaps my friend's son has drunk the Kool-aid. Or perhaps Musk is exhibiting some psychology related to him being forced to buy the company. Either way, it is a popcorn-worthy show that I don't think Musk will win.

 

[Pellice]

Why is anyone worried about it? It seems like a non-event being made into a big deal.

Well, I was just getting the hang of Twitter. It was my primary source of "primary source" material on Ukraine. I had begun to discover a lot of interesting birding organizations for my "interests" section. And it was NOT weighed down unduly by reams of photographs and videos. It was text oriented.

On the other hand, an organized search was nearly impossible, it was a major rabbit hole, and you were always within a hairsbreath of encountering someone's disgusting tweet.

But I will miss it. I can say that I learned a lot from my Twitter feed.

 

[wrigley]

I couldn't add this to the last thread speculating this might happen, because the old Elon Musk - Twitter thread got shut down due to politics, so here is a new thread. Let's try to keep this one open.

“Entire teams representing critical infrastructure are voluntarily departing the company, leaving the company at serious risk of being able to recover,” the engineer, who said they were handing in their resignation on Thursday, wrote to CNBC.

The engineer added that many leaving Twitter did not feel the need to stay, and that they only knew of two people staying, one because the company sponsored their U.S. visa. “We are skilled professionals with lots of options, so Elon has given us no reasons to stay and many to leave,” they wrote. - https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/17/new-wave-of-resignations-hits-twitter-after-musk-ultimatum.html

For an otherwise smart guy, I don't know what Elon Musk was thinking with his no work from home and you must commit to work insanely long hour forms for employees to sign. Engineers in high demand / low supply fields can quite easily just switch jobs for higher pay per hour and better working conditions.

Most, if not all, of the people that left were going to leave anyway as soon as they found out the sale to Musk went final.

Mike

 

[DrRoy]

Musk bought a mess.. He will have to break some eggs, and he is.

If so, he may be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

 

[punkinhead]

All of these reports of people quitting in droves and the impending collapse are just anecdotes. These articles are another example of the fall of proper journalism and rise of clickbait. I hope they're right because I believe Twitter is a cesspool and a net negative for society but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[JoeWras]

Agree punkinhead: anecdotes are the new journalism. Very sad.

Oh this is so 1999. Reminds me of myself at Megacorp. We were all arrogant SOBs. From management to the newest employee.

Looking at Twitter from the outside, it looks like everyone from the CEO to the lowest employee is a petulant child. I was one of those in 1999.

When I look back at my life, I'm ashamed of the way I acted during those years.

I disengaged from the product years ago. I made three tweets in my life. Years before the whole Trump thing blew up, I didn't like the platform's obvious sorting algorithm and information tilting so I deleted my account and those three tweets. If it disappears, I wouldn't care.

I also don't care about any employee going public and sobbing. Keep that stuff to yourself and grow up. I wouldn't hire you if you came out public and bad mouthed your employer. You would be off my list of hire candidates. The world doesn't own you anything.

 

[pb4uski]

I dunno. If Twitter implodes and no longer exists and Musk has $44 billion of egg on his face, what's the problem? Seems like the world is better off to me.

 

[target2019]

Mastodon. It's de-centralized and appeals to my inner geek.

https://joinmastodon.org/ for an intro and joining.

https://mastodon.help/instances/en for an explanation of how things work.

Reminds me of the early days.

Not really interested in the political gyrations about rich fascists. Lol.

 

[dixonge]

A few thoughts:

1. Twitter ran all day yesterday, all through the night, and is still running this morning. Daily Average User stats are through the roof! Everyone talking about #RIPTwitter *ON* Twitter is the height of irony...
2. Well, except maybe for engineers who built and still use Twitter every day stating that it will now fail without them. If it does, they didn't build it very well and should have been fired a long time ago. If it doesn't, then they *did* build it well, but are publicly lying by stating that it will fail. Perhaps they are wish-projecting. Also highly ironic.
3. For every link to an article in a major media outlet that I see somewhere on FB or a forum I see 50 on Twitter. The media running click-bait headlines about the demise of Twitter wouldn't last to the end of 2023 w/out Twitter.
4. Massive layoffs will have an *insane* impact on Twitter's bottom line next quarter, even with a temporary revenue drop.
5. Mastodon. Uh, I feel like everyone recommending it has either never used it or is new to it. I spent many months there but haven't re-engaged since 2017. It could *possibly* be different now with the recent influx of people and organizations, but that won't change the infrastructure and interface issues. Plus it is now an even bigger, more focused echo chamber of people who think the government should force private companies to censor their users. Can't wait till they start deplatforming each other over trivial crap on Mastodon. Should be entertaining...

 

[Montecfo]

If so, he may be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Well, I would guess he knows more about what the company needs than any of us. It has become popular to bash him mainly due to politics.

Meantime Twitter usage is at an all-time record and those who loudly said they are leaving are probably doing so because they prefer an echo chamber and need constant attention.

I think we need to let this play out. There is almost no chance he does not improve Twitter.

 

[USGrant1962]

I just thought it odd that he didn't lay down the law first (you know, we expect you to work full time for your pay) and let the disgruntled and quitters self-select. Then lay off down to 50% or whatever is appropriate.

 

[CincyDave]

Organizations like Twitter often benefit from a major shake-up. And sometimes not. The employees are at zero risk. All can easily find other jobs paying twice as much, requiring half the hours and all done from home (or wherever they want to be). I'm at zero risk because I could care less if Twitter ceases to exist or reforms and prospers. Elon has little risk because even if he loses every cent he has or will put into Twitter, his life won't change. He won't have to start buying cheap, single ply TP! There are no hapless stock holders to fret about.

Why is anyone worried about it? It seems like a non-event being made into a big deal.

Man, if I could have gotten a job paying twice as much with half the hours, I would have already left.

 

[Aerides]

Well, I would guess he knows more about what the company needs than any of us. It has become popular to bash him mainly due to politics.

Meantime Twitter usage is at an all-time record and those who loudly said they are leaving are probably doing so because they prefer an echo chamber and need constant attention.

I think we need to let this play out. There is almost no chance he does not improve Twitter.

The politics is irrelevant and not helpful to allowing this thread to last as long as twitter might have left.

He laid off 50% of the team.

Then he gave an ultimatum to the rest (go hardcore or go to severance), which, reportedly, 75% declined as of last night. The remaining 25% of the 50% are likely scared, financially strapped, or reliant on their employment visa's and unable to nimbly move. Anyone with amazing portable talent would have bailed. I would. You would. Given that offer, if someone started a thread here, literally every post in response would be to take the 3 months and go.

I don't know many companies that could go from 3800 to ~500 and still run well. Especially when the odds of those ~500 being the A team are super slim at this point. Anyone with a strong portable resume is gone or going. It certainly would preclude anything other than the barest of keep-the-lights-on stuff.

 

[ERD50]

The son of a friend of mine works for Musk at SpaceX (I think). He is a relatively young engineer. He occasionally interacts with Musk, maybe every couple of months. The kid speaks highly of Musk and says he is respectful of young voices and tolerates respectful challenges based on technical issues.

This seems completely contrary to what we are hearing at Twitter. I'm not sure what to make of it. ...

I suspect that the workers at SpaceX and the workers at Twitter are a very different breed.

It's hard to know what is accurate on the internet, but there have been a lot of reports of Twitter employees not working very hard at all and being coddled. I never heard that about the SpaceX staff.

I also would take the postings of any disgruntled employees with a large number of grains of salt.

... I don't know many companies that could go from 3800 to ~500 and still run well. Especially when the odds of those ~500 being the A team are super slim at this point. Anyone with a strong portable resume is gone or going. It certainly would preclude anything other than the barest of keep-the-lights-on stuff.

Don't forget that Musk has a large number of very talented people at SpaceX and Tesla, and all those people are used to putting in near insane hours and by all accounts, work very hard, and get stuff done. He can draw on that talent for a while.

IME, the talented motivated employees probably got 10x results or more than the slightly below average employee.

I certainly don't know, but I feel I'm in no position to declare what Musk is doing is wrong. I'll wait and see.

-ERD50