Twitter Employees Resigning

[njhowie]

As for the all the coders quitting, bye, they can always learn new skills, like mining, truck driving, ditch digging, plumbing, construction, or flipping burgers and learning to say with a smile, want fries with that?, etc..

What are you talking about? They are quitting because they can easily find new/better positions coding, they will get 3 months severance, not have to sign the silly agreement to work 24x7, in the office, and so on.

I believe Musk is failing miserably thus far. The wild day to day nonsense taking place is a comedy of errors. Yes, he owns the company and can do what he wants. However, thus far it appears most everything he's done is a mistake. His problem is that he doesn't really think things through, he just does it and if it doesn't work then tries again. That may work with cars and rockets, where you try something, if it crashes or blows up, throw more money at it, redesign, and try again next week. As he's showing, that doesn't work with a software/social media platform.

He may be making decisions which permanently harm or destroy the company.

 

[Fermion]

Nobody has Twitter stock.

Tesla shareholders probably will, when Elon does a solar city type deal.

 

[jblack]

Probably difficult to answer without knowing more specifics but if Twitter goes completely under would Elon be positioned to take advantage of a massive capital loss in his taxes? He does have a healthy gain on the other side of his portfolio.

 

[njhowie]

Tesla shareholders probably will, when Elon does a solar city type deal.

Now that's an interesting thought...have Tesla bail him out of his mistake.

However, with the government looking in to Twitter happenings, it probably wouldn't go over too well with that additional scrutiny now. Further, there is an argument for what Tesla has ultimately done with Solar City, creating an integrated/vertical ecosystem with solar panels, Tesla Powerwalls, and the cars. I don't see how Twitter logically fits in with any of that.

 

[NW-Bound]

I don't think Twitter can be bailed out by Tesla. The two businesses have nothing in common.

If Twitter goes to 0, a lot of people will be pissed. Musk does not own all of it. He had a lot of billionaire buddies who went in with him and put in cash, plus the banks that loaned him $13 billion or so.

This is so interesting to watch, particularly for someone who has no stakes in this.

 

[Murf2]

On the plus side if Musk tanks Twitter, we may never have to hear “ this just in from Twitter” on the news again.
It may just be the death of professional journalism. [emoji1787]

 

[jollystomper]

The chatter just reminds me of those who buy a stock for the long term but then get upset at (or worse, make decisions on) its daily gyrations. Of course the engineers who do not like the situation are going to leave *and* talk about how bad things are falling apart. But as was mentioned above, it is still working. I always remember that folks who are happy with changes and/or willing to deal with them are not going to broadcast their joy, because they tend to get beaten down by louder promoted voices. In sum, too early to be expecting its demise, let us see how things work out a year or so from now.

 

[Fermion]

Think of all the trouble twitter has caused Musk because of his "tweets". From stuff about Tesla buyouts to ranting over pedophile spelunkers, perhaps destroying Twitter will save him a lot of future headache.

 

[bobandsherry]

Think of all the trouble twitter has caused Musk because of his "tweets". From stuff about Tesla buyouts to ranting over pedophile spelunkers, perhaps destroying Twitter will save him a lot of future headache.

What trouble? Seems he's been able to navigate and side step almost every infraction with barely a slap on the hand.

 

[NW-Bound]

Think of all the trouble twitter has caused Musk because of his "tweets". From stuff about Tesla buyouts to ranting over pedophile spelunkers, perhaps destroying Twitter will save him a lot of future headache.

He could have created a new social media for an outlet to share his thoughts.

It would be a lot easier and cheaper, though it would not have the same large audience. He would not take over this ER forum, for example.

 

[NW-Bound]

The chatter just reminds me of those who buy a stock for the long term but then get upset at (or worse, make decisions on) its daily gyrations...

It depends.

If you bailed out of Enron, MCI/Worldcom, or Bear Stearns at the 1st sign of troubles, you would thank your lucky star.

Of course at this point, only some billionaire friends of Musk plus some banks are left holding the bag. At some point, the banks will have to write off the loans. We'll see.

Banks that lent $12.7 billion to Elon Musk for his $44 billion Twitter takeover will hold the debt until early next year as they wait for the billionaire to unveil a clearer business plan they can market to investors, the Financial Times reported.

The group of lenders, led by Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and Barclays (BARC.L), have conceded they will be stuck holding the debt on their books for months or even longer and will probably end up incurring huge losses on the financing package, according to the report published Tuesday, citing sources.

 

[Mark1]

This is so interesting to watch, particularly for someone who has no stakes in this.

+1
I find it fascinating to watch, as it plays out.

A coworker and I always wondered how long an oil refinery would run on its own if everyone just walked out. Twitter might be the closest example to that scenario I ever get to watch and see.

 

[DJRR]

What are you talking about? They are quitting because they can easily find new/better positions coding, they will get 3 months severance, not have to sign the silly agreement to work 24x7, in the office, and so on.

I believe Musk is failing miserably thus far. The wild day to day nonsense taking place is a comedy of errors. Yes, he owns the company and can do what he wants. However, thus far it appears most everything he's done is a mistake. His problem is that he doesn't really think things through, he just does it and if it doesn't work then tries again. That may work with cars and rockets, where you try something, if it crashes or blows up, throw more money at it, redesign, and try again next week. As he's showing, that doesn't work with a software/social media platform.

He may be making decisions which permanently harm or destroy the company.

But but, you forget that Elon is a genius and the previous managers were idiots who did not know that their company was infested by lazy slackers who play video games all day long. I guess we will see.

At the end of the day it is a math problem:

He had $5B in revenue and 7,500 employees = $667k per employee. A respectable number.

He now has 2,000 employees so he has increased the productivity ~ 4x. That is a great number.

The caveat is he has to:

1. Keep the platform running
2. Keep the advertisers spending
3. Deal with the lawsuits and politics that will occur if he is unable to control hate speech and people are incited to violence as a result of the platform, etc.

For 1 my take is that very few people can understand a company in 3 weeks, identify, retain, and motivate the key performers. Maybe Elon has a god like omniscience, but my guess is he would have been better served spending 3 months figuring things out vs. burning the house down. Maybe he has a master plan, but I believe he is a creative genius and a business management disaster.

For number 2, that is related to number 1. What do advertisers want? Elon is betting that they don't want all the "woke" restrictions on hate speech and unverified bots. So he fired the "soft" people that do those moderation functions and bet his programmers could easily verify and secure accounts. I believe he is wrong on the restrictions and correct on the bots, but as the Eli Lilly fiasco shows his programming verification plan was easy to defeat. If he thinks he will convert a free social media platform to a profitable subscription model then I think he is in for a bad surprise.

As always, he is good for drama, so we will see and I will acknowledge that he is better than the rest if he succeeds

 

[daylatedollarshort]

For number 2, that is related to number 1. What do advertisers want? Elon is betting that they don't want all the "woke" restrictions on hate speech and unverified bots. So he fired the "soft" people that do those moderation functions and bet his programmers could easily verify and secure accounts.

I was enjoying seeing verified accounts from Satan, Jesus Christ and Captain Crunch.

 

[MichaelB]

Twitter’s last financial filing (here), 2Q 2022, for the quarter ending June 30, is very informative.

Twitter’s ongoing expense run rate was about $1.5B for the quarter, and 1/3 of that was classified as R&D, so about $1B in quarterly operational expense. It had close to $6B in cash and short term marketable securities. Revenue was $1.1B, of which $1.0B was advertising.

So, Twitter can lose its entire advertising income for a year, and fund operations for that entire year, still meet all its financial obligations, cover all debt maturing within 2 years, and remain solvent. That’s plenty of time to take it apart and rebuild a successful business. I’d say the critical challenge right now is to keep it operating while that rebuilding takes place and not let the users move elsewhere. That seems achievable.

It needs to get advertising revenue back over $1B and growing to be a viable business, and it needs to generate enough cash to pay the assumed debt along with the money borrowed to finance the purchase. That also seems achievable.

The cost of all the separations is unknown, and could be an issue. There was lots of stock based compensation, and it’s not clear what the current cost of that is. Still, even with that, Twitter could reduce its workforce by half without jeopardizing it’s ability to operate at a bare bones level.

If new Twitter is a copy of old Twitter with new management, this will have been a colossal waste of money and probably generate a fair amount of ill will. If new Twitter is different in a meaningful way and also a viable business, we may conclude it was a painful approach to a difficult challenge that worked and provided a bit of entertainment value along the way.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

For 1 my take is that very few people can understand a company in 3 weeks, identify, retain, and motivate the key performers. Maybe Elon has a god like omniscience, but my guess is he would have been better served spending 3 months figuring things out vs. burning the house down. Maybe he has a master plan, but I believe he is a creative genius and a business management disaster.

He is and has been the owner of multiple businesses, including stakes in tech firms before including Paypal. He must have some understanding of the importance of turnover, especially when over half the company is leaving. There is no reason he could not have down a slower downsizing with less animosity and threats toward the current employees. I'm not sure what business purpose that all served.

 

[razztazz]

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

I don't see anyone "worried" about it. Major company, major personalities involved, lot o' money, as social media I guess it would affect some people's modus vivendi. So, it's something people will find an interesting topic to discuss. I see no one worrying. And, I agree, it's a smaller deal than it is being presented as. But that's just "the news."

 

[Montecfo]

If the Twitter employees were happy, that would be a terrible sign.

That they and others are bellyaching suggests needed change is happening.

The disaster would be a money losing, bloated, unfair speech status quo.

 

[youbet]

I don't see anyone "worried" about it. Major company, major personalities involved, lot o' money, as social media I guess it would affect some people's modus vivendi. So, it's something people will find an interesting topic to discuss. I see no one worrying. And, I agree, it's a smaller deal than it is being presented as. But that's just "the news."

Nicely stated opinion razztazz.

I tend towards pragmatism. I'm much more interested in the potential railroad strike which could cause us all some personal pain than Elon's antics with Twitter's staffing and changing business strategy. But I agree, it is an interesting thing to gather around the wood stove and discuss and perhaps even gossip about! And, as someone already mentioned, I'm here participating with the rest!

 

[NW-Bound]

But but, you forget that Elon is a genius and the previous managers were idiots who did not know that their company was infested by lazy slackers who play video games all day long. I guess we will see.
...
For 1 my take is that very few people can understand a company in 3 weeks, identify, retain, and motivate the key performers. Maybe Elon has a god like omniscience, ...

Nah, Musk did not waste as long as 3 weeks. After the 1st day, he already fired 1/2 of the workers.

As always, he is good for drama, so we will see and I will acknowledge that he is better than the rest if he succeeds

Yes, there has been no CEO who ever tweeted as much. Not just post, but Musk also reads other people's posts to retort. And still finds time for all other activities, not all are business related. Amazing.

I don't go to Twitter, but get fed a constant repost on the Web of Tweets from all sorts of personalities over the years. It's often entertaining, and lets me know what's going on out there, because I don't get out much.

 

[milford]

If Musk is able to keep the ship afloat after all this shenanigans, this will not bode well for other tech company employees as I see other tech companies will be aggressively trimming the fat as well since the days of cheap money are gone for now.

 

[NW-Bound]

If Musk is able to keep the ship afloat after all this shenanigans, this will not bode well for other tech company employees as I see other tech companies will be aggressively trimming the fat as well since the days of cheap money are gone for now.

Only the "hardcore" workers who put in 40 hours/week at the office, then go home to work another 40 hours will have a job.

Aren't we glad we are already retired?

 

[teetee]

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.

When a man gets money and power, it makes him more of what he already is. The Elon Musk we see in this past year is just what he is: an engineer that is emotionally immature going through his midlife crisis.

I think he is consumed by something (likely his ego) that resulted in one bad decisions after another. I used to agree with his motivation behind Tesla and spaceX but now I just think he is going mad. He is empty inside. Being a workaholic only made him worse, not better.

 

[cyber888]

Wow, just wow .. someone is projecting these Messages to Elon on the Twitter Headquarters.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593419950693052418

 

[eboats]

Wow, just wow .. someone is projecting these Messages to Elon on the Twitter Headquarters.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593419950693052418

Love it! Maybe he'll rename the company "Toxic". Pretty much sums up their "product" (whatever that is), their CEO and their new work environment.