Elon Musk goes Off the Rails

[wavey]

Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to ‘hardcore’ Twitter or take severance (gifted link)

It’s a tough one - get out with 3 months pay before it collapses, or commit to giving over your entire waking life to the capricious whims of a shitposting manbaby cosplaying as a software engineer.

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

[scottagibson]

@Mark_Asher

One is from someone who made a slam on his company in a public forum that got viewed by hundreds of thousands of people…

Who did this?

[Juan_Raigada]

@sincilbanks

Some organisations value that kind of push back and encourage it, wanting an open and honest exchange of views particularly from their technical staff.

Public pushback? Maybe, but that’s a very specific organization.

Open and honest exchange is a common wanted cultural trait, but mostly in private.

[wavey]

It started with:

Elon Musk

Why make a public statement like that?

It’s clear he wants to establish a narrative - “Twitter was bloated and badly engineered before I came along, I’ll soon whip it into shape with my godlike powers etc etc”.

If that narrative takes hold, that’s going to negatively affect the future employment prospects of the engineering staff currently there. (How would you weight the application of an engineer fired from a company notorious for laughably bad engineering…?)

So fair play to those who spoke up countering this, and defending their colleagues in the process.

[ShivaX]

“The App team is incompetent,” is basically the opening statement.

[TheWombat]

@Mark_Asher

I’m hiring and I have a dozen compelling resumes in front of me. One is from someone who made a slam on his company in a public forum that got viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, and I can’t weigh that in my hiring process? Maybe I think that’s great and this person is a hero and goes to the top of the pile, but maybe I’m cautious and it worries me that this person will do the same to my company and I’m the one who recommended him/her and this person slips down the list, because I don’t want to risk the blowback when I have other good candidates to promote.

Of course I was exaggerating (and it was late, well, late for me!). And your approach is eminently reasonable. I was reacting to the other binary I was seeing, and the implication that obeisance to “the boss” took precedence over all other qualities.

I also agree that criticizing one’s company/boss in public will almost always end badly for you, and probably should. I was just saying that in this case I see no reason to disbar someone who did that, because of the specific circumstances.

[TheWombat]

@Tortilla

We will have to disagree then. Even if Musk is doing something criminal, I expect a good employee to quit (after reporting criminal activities to relevant authorities) as opposed to having some public fight with an exec in order to get fired. That’s just not professional. Corporate mismanagement is not unique to Musk, it’s just that Musk is doing it so very publicly. I don’t condemn anyone who leaves, or anyone who stays for that matter since people have families to feed. But people who want to throw public tantrums and get fired are unprofessional in my book. I’d be skeptical about ever hiring such a person for a future role, because who knows what they might decide to throw another public tantrum about down the road?

I get what you are saying, for sure. And yeah, it’s not a smart thing to do, slam you boss in public, and I don’t actually fault Twitter for firing them (that’s the least of the evils the company’s new management is committing).

It’s that I disagree with elevating obedience and public fealty to a boss or company to the level many do. Making that a key part of being a “good employee” perpetuates the idea that owners/bosses are superior to mere proles, who need to know their place. In practical terms, no, this doesn’t really matter; I’ve worked in corporate environments and yes you have to toe the line, it’s part of the deal. What I object to is elevating that necessary evil to become a sine qua non. That, and the idea that someone who reacts poorly to what may be one of the worst examples of executive malfeasance in modern history somehow becomes a potential loose cannon in a new situation seems, well, extreme.

[Scott123]

Is this real? I’m amazed at the lack of grade 10 math here.

Elon Musk

[Ephraim]

@sincilbanks

I think it entirely depends on the culture of the organisation that is thinking about hiring

Well said. Exactly this. My company would hire this person in a heartbeat if he were fully qualified for his duties and responsibilities. His speaking truth to power stance is absolutely aligned with our corporate mission, vision, and overall corporate culture.

[JD]

Buckle up, sweethearts!

Elon Musk gives Twitter staff deadline to commit to being ‘hardcore’

Elon Musk has given Twitter’s remaining staff a Thursday deadline to commit to working “long hours at high intensity” and being “extremely hardcore” or else leave with three months’ severance pay.

In an email to the social media platform’s employees, seen by the Guardian, its new owner said building the next iteration of Twitter would require exceptional performance.

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” Musk wrote.

The message asked staff to click on a link if they want to be “part of the new Twitter” by 5pm New York time (10pm GMT) on Thursday.

[ShivaX]

“I canned all the people that keep bots out and now our numbers are rising fast,” is not the win he thinks it is.

[Lurb]

Staying at Twitter now can only be a symptom of not being good enough to have found a new place already.

[dtolman]

Probably grounds to be let go.

Wait - you decided to STAY? You’re definitely fired as a low performer

[BellaConfusione]

[vinraith]

1. Fire all your efficient coders.
2. Fire all your coders that have any other prospects.
3. SYNTAX ERROR
4. Profit?

[grahamiam]

I mean, it’s mid November. Would you rather spend the next 3 months and your holidays going “hardcore” for this guy, or get a paid 3 months vacation? Hard choice

[Thrag]

Well, if all the engineers quit surely Musk will be able to hire new top notch engineers with his promise of constant crunch time. Engineers love constant crunch time.

[Noman]

@Telefrog

I’m saying a random person that has a similar exchange with a random (unknown) boss is probably not going to get the benefit of that infamy. It’s just going to look like an employee corrected his boss on a public venue, and had a fight, (fair or not) which is not doing that person’s job hunt any favors.

As someone who has combed through applications and hired people before, it’s not the kind of thing I’m going to look at positively if I don’t have that “the richest man in the world is melting down in public” back story.

I think the employee did the exact right thing by correcting the CEO, who originally made a public damaging comment about his own company. The employee was the one defending the company.

I’d have no problem hiring such person.

[TheWombat]

When I hear people toss around “hardcore” like this, I can’t help but think of this:

[dionisus1122]

I would definitely hire that guy if he is a good engineer.

Good engineers are like good sales reps - worth putting up with whatever because they deliver.