Elon Musk goes Off the Rails

[Wendelius]

@Menzo

CEOs are allowed to ask their exempt employees to work long hours.

What’s an “exempt employee”?

[nKoan]

Salaried. Exempt from (being paid) overtime

[Menzo]

In the US it’s basically someone who is paid a salary instead of by the hour.

And while it’s easy to be shocked and aghast at what Musk is doing at Twitter, I truly think there are plenty of (mostly young, I imagine) people who are super excited about being a part of what he’s trying to do there.

Will it be enough to actually run Twitter effectively? Who knows.

[KevinC]

And just think, @Wendelius, Elon Musk effectively controls their access to healthcare as well. Welcome to America!

[Wendelius]

Thanks both. Makes sense. You can’t ask those people (or pretty much anyone) to work crazy long hours in UK. So not sure even posting that would be a great idea.

Maximum weekly working hours: Overview - GOV.UK.

Opting out of the 48 hour week

You can choose to work more than 48 hours a week on average if you’re over 18. This is called ‘opting out’.

Your employer can ask you to opt out, but you cannot be sacked or treated unfairly for refusing to do so.

You can opt out for a certain period or indefinitely. It must be voluntary and in writing.

Example of opt-out agreement:

I [worker’s name] agree that I may work for more than an average of 48 hours a week. If I change my mind, I will give my employer [amount of time - up to 3 months’] notice in writing to end this agreement. Signed…………………………………… Dated…………………………………….

…

Cancelling an opt-out agreement

You can cancel your opt-out agreement whenever you want - even if it’s part of your employment contract.

You must give your employer at least 7 days’ notice. You may have to give more notice (up to 3 months) if you have a written opt-out agreement.

Your employer cannot force you to cancel your opt-out agreement.

[Wendelius]

America, fuck yeah! (am I doing it right? :) )

[KevinC]

One of us! One of us!

[Menzo]

@KevinC

Elon Musk effectively controls their access to healthcare as well. Welcome to America!

Yes, our healthcare system sucks, but California has many affordable healthcare options in the insurance marketplace. I was on one for a while.

In any case, even with the layoffs at various large companies, engineers are in heavy demand and I highly doubt any of them will be out of work for long.

[KevinC]

That’s awesome. Here in Red America, I think my available healthcare plans are what my employer offers or a Colt .45 behind the shed.

[Wendelius]

@KevinC

a Colt .45 behind the shed

I’m starting to get the gist. :)

[espressojim]

@KevinC

That’s awesome. Here in Red America, I think my available healthcare plans are what my employer offers or a Colt .45 behind the shed.

As a pro-tip: If a colt 45 is your healthcare plan, be sure not to engage in premature optimization.

[Menzo]

Also, California’s unemployment benefits are not terrible. I imagine every Twitter employee will qualify for the maximum payout, which is $450/week. That’s enough to pay for about 1/3rd of their one-bedroom apartment’s rent!

[Telefrog]

The bad news is the bullet is out of coverage and costs $23K.

[cmwolfe]

For some reason when I read @KevinC ’s message my mind went to a completely different Colt 45

Less “bullet in the head” and more “drink your problems away with this warm beer behind the shed”

[Soapyfrog]

@Wendelius

You can’t ask those people (or pretty much anyone) to work crazy long hours in UK.

I mean you can ask but you cant fire them if they don’t want to

[triggercut]

@Wendelius

Thanks both. Makes sense. You can’t ask those people (or pretty much anyone) to work crazy long hours in UK. So not sure even posting that would be a great idea.

LOL.

Tell me you don’t know anyone working in a salaried position in a UK restaurant/hospitality sector without telling me that.

[Scrax]

How to solicit a loyalty pledge without soliciting a loyalty pledge. I’m sure those hardcore employees will be well rewarded for their intense labors as soon as (if) Twitter becomes profitable and cash flush again.

[Aceris]

@Scott123

For my part, a lot of it would have been addressed the same way we all in this forum deal with this in large meetings. The engineer should have publicly said “I disagree with this but let’s discuss it offline”.

Leadership Sync

I KNOW you did not just SAY you want to take this OFFLINE.

@Timex

Here’s the thing… There are plenty of great engineers who AREN’T assholes. Hell, I’d actually say that most engineers tend to be kind of introverted, thoughtful people.

One thing that annoys me about the rockstar developer argument is people tend to treat it as a binary between the asshole and the collaboration genius. The truth so often is somewhere in the middle, but of course the biggest voices in setting the tone are of the most politically able engineers and its in their interests to de-emphasize the importance of raw technical ability.

@LeeAbe

but the couple of engineers I know are quite insistent that software engineers are not actually engineers.

As someone who writes tooling for engineers I can confirm programmers are not engineers.

@Telefrog

I guess I’m a corpo boot-licker, but I feel “I’ve been doing this for six years and you’re wrong” would be a bad response to the owner of the company even during an internal all-hands meeting. If that were my team member I’d pull that person aside later and advise them that there are better ways to handle that sentiment.

You’re not wrong, but that’s not very far away from creating a different kind of toxic environment.

Sure they need some guidance on addressing conflict directly in a constructive manner, but they also care enough to endanger their career so it’s probably worth the CEO or one of their direct reports sitting down with them for half an hour to try and figure out what the issue is.

Of course middle management hates that and wants to stop it happening - which is bad for the company.

[Calelari]

@Scott123

let’s discuss it offline

I thought the QT3 way was a poll with a “shit bonerz” option.

[rei]

Choggle pants