Twitter lays off 5K contractors in surprise 2nd wave of cuts, more mods lost

One Twitter contractor was laid off mid-update to child safety.

See full article...

 

[OROD]

 

[msawzall]

While it's not in the focus, a part of the blame for the layoffs goes to the previous owners who decided to sell twitter even though the economic landscape was changing drastically and it should have been clear that the company won't survive as it is while being burdened by that much financial debt.

Owners/shareholders did not fire those employees. Elon did. And I won't put blame on a shareholder who is doing something in their own interest and without anticipating whatever dumb ass idea Elon would execute.

 

[Ben G]

While it's not in the focus, a part of the blame for the layoffs goes to the previous owners who decided to sell twitter even though the economic landscape was changing drastically and it should have been clear that the company won't survive as it is while being burdened by that much financial debt.

The “previous owners” are also known as “Twitter stock owners”. They are the ones who voted to approve the sale.

 

[bmaniora]

Twitter, the social media company, laid off their entire communications department? But they are a media company.

That would be like an airline firing all their pilots, or if not that then maybe all their fuelers.

 

[TVPaulD]

Twitter doesn’t need all those microservices, do they?
View attachment 46685

Any of these microservices involved with making sure Tweets go out from the right accounts? Because I Quote Tweeted myself about 40 minutes ago and got a Notification showing the exact same Quote Tweet was sent by a completely unrelated account almost immediately after.

Maybe it was a Bot trying to establish human activity using real Tweets or something I suppose, but

1/ Pretty blatant way to do that, seems counterproductive
2/ Surely bots can’t be operating with impunity on Twitter right now, I was assured Elon Musk was solving that problem, not making it worse.

 

[Deleted member 553147]

Twitter, the social media company, laid off their entire communications department? But they are a media company.

That would be like an airline firing all their pilots, or if not that then maybe all their fuelers.

You have just given Musk a brilliant idea for his next corporate takeover-then-cost cutting project. Now, surely there must be a airline somewhere he can buy for $50 billion…

 

[Deleted member 174040]

I can add to that: Major weather events, mass shootings, any kind of police action, anonymously calling out corruption and lies and honestly, most of the video I have seen of police brutality were uploaded to twitter. There really isn't any other platform that has the ability to be a kind of breaking news for anyone to use, not just those who already have the mic. And even those who do use it for the same reasons, it's immediate, you don't have to call a press conference, it's why even the local police use it.

In a perfect world these services would exist apart from ‘social media,’ but we don’t live in a perfect world.

 

[madcapcat]

Really? Why?

How many 'engagements' per year should we have to avoid investigation?

I sure hope someone lets us know soon!
Listening is a skill, too.

 

[watermeloncup]

You gotta remember, he's probably unaware that humans need to eat.

That's why they're all such losers compared to St. Elon. They should be able to get through the day on nothing but Soylent and snorting a line of Adderal in the bathroom.

 

[ArsScene]

At the rate it's going, the free market is going to take care of that real fast. Major advertisers were already leery, and that was before eliminating their ability to actually moderate anything. The investment bankers that financed much of this deal are finding nobody trusts Musk to run it and won't buy in except for pennies on the dollar, so they have debt they can't move in a company whose CEO is openly talking about bankruptcy (while also claiming he wants to get into banking, for some reason).

The cash burn might be going down by firing everyone, but it's taking the revenue side down with it. The only thing that's going up in this is the amount of memes being made at Elon's expense. At some point the losses will rack up to the point that if they don't start acting like a serious company again, it'll just face shutdown.

And that's assuming the site doesn't just start having technical problems due to losing most of its infrastructure staff.

They'll be teaching this in business schools in a few years.

"They'll be teaching this in business schools in a few years."

and for decades, if not centuries. we still study the behaviors of the british east india company...

 

[Alfonse]

That he also happens to be incredibly good at it certainly helps. It's really funny to compare McConnell and McCarthy. They're both bastards, but only one is a competent, effective bastard.

Well, McConnell's job is way easier. He only needs to corralle between 50-70 Senators and prospective Senators. Each of whom needs to be at least theoretically capable of winning a state-wide race, which forces a degree of pragmatism on most of them. So the number of crazies in the senate tends to be relatively low, maybe 5-8.

McCarthy has to deal with dozens of crazies from across the multitude of gerrymandered districts that rewards whomever can appeal to the far-right the most. Even if it is similar in terms of percentages, it is way harder in terms of sheer numbers.

 

[Snark218]

Someday we'll be able to read "Cautionary Tales of Capitalism: The Life and Times of Elon Musk"

Or bards will sing of it, since we'll be back in a dark age.

You gotta remember, he's probably unaware that humans need to eat.

"Eat? Whaddya mean eat? I've been consuming nothing but cocaine, a bunch of weird mushrooms Pete Thiel thinks boost memory performance, and some little pink pills Grimes left in my nightstand for the last 78 days approximately and my heart feels like a fucking lion

 

[Alfonse]

While it's not in the focus, a part of the blame for the layoffs goes to the previous owners who decided to sell twitter even though the economic landscape was changing drastically and it should have been clear that the company won't survive as it is while being burdened by that much financial debt.

Errant nonsense. Twitter accepted Musk's offer. Notably after rejecting a previous offer from Musk.

The blame for the layoffs is 100% on Musk. If the purchase (and ensuing debt) was the cause, that was still Musk's choice, not the Twitter board.

 

[DrewW]

The dumpster fire continues.

In all seriousness, I don't think I've ever heard of a poorly done company takeover... ever. And there have been some historically bad ones.

This is the mindblowing part. I can understand deciding to buy Twitter whilst high, but was he high for the entire six months before he went to the front lines of the culture war armed with only a sink?

 

[CenterLess]

Well, McConnell's job is way easier. He only needs to corralle between 50-70 Senators and prospective Senators. Each of whom needs to be at least theoretically capable of winning a state-wide race, which forces a degree of pragmatism on most of them. So the number of crazies in the senate tends to be relatively low, maybe 5-8.

McCarthy has to deal with dozens of crazies from across the multitude of gerrymandered districts that rewards whomever can appeal to the far-right the most. Even if it is similar in terms of percentages, it is way harder in terms of sheer numbers.

It's all academic anyway. They don't have the numbers after this last election.

 

[IncorrigibleTroll]

He himself said that you can’t be an effective employee if you aren’t in the office, so how can he be effective at all his jobs? Is he in 5 places at once?

The fact that you are unable to squeeze 200 working hours into a single 168 hour week says more about you than it does about Elon. Perhaps you should try pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.

 

[tidbits]

This is so much fun to watch!

I'm not sure what all the downvotes are for, maybe because real people are being affected, but that doesn't stop it from being hilarious that Musk is failing so spectacularly and is in for a reckoning that neither she nor her fangirls (yes I am intentionally misgendering, becasue it will enflame and annoy those douchebags who claim that pronouns are stupid) can imagine.....

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

I have to say, I'm a little ashamed to see all the Arsians jumping in to post the same "dumpster fire" nonsense just because it's an article about Elon Musk and Twitter.

We're supposed to be better than that.

We take in all the evidence and make an evaluation based on rational, unbiased consolidation and consideration of the bigger picture.


In that light, it's clear that this is far from being a dumpster fire. It is, in fact, a Blazing Garbage Barge.

Spoiler: The Sitch(uation)

 

[watermeloncup]

I don't think enticing people back to the office is the plan, returning to the office will be mandatory.

A free lunch is not the only way to show you care. Nor is it one of the first options. Does the employer provide a really good chair, do they provide a really good monitor, those are far more important than a "free lunch" to me.

There is also the question of whether the cafeteria is closing or not. If the cafeteria remains open and is offering lunch "at cost" that too would be a benefit. Even if its prices were similar to retail the cafeteria is a benefit due to its convenience. I've seen both of these cafeteria scenarios and employees saw both as nice benefits. I think the most important things to them were convenience and the food was healthier than fast food.

Removing multiple benefits (working from home, free lunches, reasonable work weeks) is a great way to show you don't give a fuck about employees, though.

 

[Don Reba]

Elon Musk is not a smart man, and it's time people in general start acknowledging that.

Maybe there are no universally smart people, just ones outstanding in some areas, sometimes at the expense of others.

 

[CenterLess]

With respect to the many voices of outrage, this really isn't news--or shouldn't be.

I have, over the course of a long career in software, been involved in a number of forensic investigations into criminal mischief. In one such case there was sufficient evidence to prosecute, and the perp went to prison. In all of the other cases there was a pretty clear case of Who Done the Deed--but nothing like actual forensic evidence to prosecute. In two of those cases the damage done by the perp was sufficient to destroy the business.

It is a common trope that a "computer hacker" (in the sense of a villain with a keyboard) is a 13-year-old kid with a Commodore 64. Nice character for a kids movie--but in reality, in every single instance I have ever been involved in, the villain is an employee who has been given notice or a contractor who knows he/she is not going to be renewed.

That's particularly true (and particularly dangerous) in a freewheeling we-trust-everybody computer environment. Like a startup where everybody learns the admin password on the network, and the sa password on the SQL Server data server cluster on their first day on the job. And those passwords never get changed.

More of those kinds of places exist than any of us want to think. And if Twitter bears any resemblance to that at all--or even a very faint resemblance to it--then HR simply has to treat any employee or contractor, no matter how cheery or helpful or brilliant or pregnant, as a security threat. Terminate their account privileges, walk 'em out the door.

Not nice. But that's the rules of the game. At least it has been for the 35 years I've been writing code.

Besides the question of the scale, we understand reductions are part of work life. Where the valid criticism comes is the haphazard and disorderly manner of the execution. Shutting down work e-mail before they can receive the notice posted by e-mail is the prime example.

 

[ScreamingFist]

*

Interesting - and almost definitely on track. However, I did see a small note somewhere that SpaceX (you know - the one that has money from Uncle Sam to send stuff up into space?) has made a large ad purchase with Twitter.

Does anyone smell something wrong with that move? Next thing you know Tesla will also be doing it, and the Boring Company, Solar whatever-it-is, Giga-Factory - all will make huge ad purchases. Wonder how legal this is.

Tesla won’t. It’s a publicly listed company and it would open them up to investor action; that’s probably already a risk given Musk hijacking technical teams to work on Twitter.

SpaceX is private so avoids that scrutiny. Musk has used the soaring share price of Tesla to underwrite SpaceX, and then hides all his shenanigans, like sexual harassment payoffs, at SpaceX.

 

[Deleted member 174040]

Just wait till you guys find out how much Elon knows about rockets.

I Read Liftoff!

Read it and you’ll know too.

 

[crmarvin42]

Someone else here claimed Musk knows stuff about rockets, and that post was up voted. Would be nice to get some clarification on this, as I personally don't believe Musk could know much. He has no formal engineering training, and he's never dedicated himself solely to SpaceX.

From what I've seen, he works with groups of talented individuals, then takes credit for whatever he wants to.

That was me, likely.

I am also not an engineer, so maybe I'm being fooled, but I was going off of some interviews I'd seen him give back when they were working their way up to their first successful Starship launch/landing. He seemed well versed on various rocket designs, discussion of the trade-offs involved in the companies decisions, etc. Not saying he did any of the engineering work himself, but he did give a strong impression that he understood it on a level I'd gauge as a graduate level.

I've also seen him talk about the chemistry involved in Tesla's products, and he came across as competent in the particulars in a way no CEO I've ever worked for has even tried to do.

Intelligence is the ability to learn something, education (formal or not) is the act of having spent time trying to learn something. Musk gives every impression of being intelligent and at least partially educated within the spheres of his core businesses. His actions at Twitter, on the other hand, give the impression whatever his intelligence actually is, he's got none of the relevant education. He's getting that education, in real time, at a pretty steep price tag. What remains to be seen is if he can figure it out BEFORE he runs the business into the ground.

 

[numerobis]

He got around 1 million USD for his startup from his father, who also put him in touch with other investors.

The number I see everywhere is $28k in an early round of investment. Not nothing, but not a million.

Putting him in touch with others, for sure that's helpful. But the crew were in Silicon Valley in the mid-90s. It would have been hard for them to avoid tripping over investors who actually understood tech a bit better than Errol Musk's contacts in real estate and mining. You couldn't get a coffee without a deal being done at the next table over, and forget chatting about the weather with a stranger on Caltrain -- for sure you'd get sized up for a startup.

 

[mpfaff]

He's now ending free staff lunches at the San Francisco HQ, stating that it costs too much money. I know the first thing I would do to entice people back in to the office is to cut a benefit that costs the company very little but goes a long way in showing you're employees you might care just a little bit about them

I worked for a startup that had free snacks, soda, and keurig coffee. It got bought and one of the first things the new owner announced was that perk going away, a group of the engineers and scientists that worked there notified the new bosses that they'd be looking for another job if they started doing that, the parent company walked it back.

People will walk over the little things.

Musk keeps doing this small picture idiot boss shit. He's going to cut free lunches while maintaining expensive Bay Area offices with expensive Bay Area employees who are required to sit in those specific chairs every day despite the fact all they need is a laptop and an Internet connection.

 

[numerobis]

Owners/shareholders did not fire those employees. Elon did. And I won't put blame on a shareholder who is doing something in their own interest and without anticipating whatever dumb ass idea Elon would execute.

Particularly not when Musk forced the sale. He tried to back out after but it was a hostile bid.

 

[ScreamingFist]

That he also happens to be incredibly good at it certainly helps. It's really funny to compare McConnell and McCarthy. They're both bastards, but only one is a competent, effective bastard.

McConnell is basically this century’s LBJ in terms of his ability to dictate how the US senate runs.

 

[g5rdpew8]

Between Twitter, FB, Amazon and Google there should be plenty of parking downtown.
Probably a good time to pick-up a cheap sublet in Seattle too. Great business for the H1B law-firms.
I should start tracking the used Tesla advertisements…

 

[Faustius23]

This is the mindblowing part. I can understand deciding to buy Twitter whilst high, but was he high for the entire six months before he went to the front lines of the culture war armed with only a sink?

Is that a rhetorical question?

 

[Golgo1]

I worked for a startup that had free snacks, soda, and keurig coffee. It got bought and one of the first things the new owner announced was that perk going away, a group of the engineers and scientists that worked there notified the new bosses that they'd be looking for another job if they started doing that, the parent company walked it back.

People will walk over the little things.

Musk keeps doing this small picture idiot boss shit. He's going to cut free lunches while maintaining expensive Bay Area offices with expensive Bay Area employees who are required to sit in those specific chairs every day despite the fact all they need is a laptop and an Internet connection.

The easiest way, with the largest financial impact to 'streamline costs' is to let the workers work from home.

But he has chosen the exact opposite.

 

[numerobis]

With respect to the many voices of outrage, this really isn't news--or shouldn't be.

I have, over the course of a long career in software, been involved in a number of forensic investigations into criminal mischief. In one such case there was sufficient evidence to prosecute, and the perp went to prison. In all of the other cases there was a pretty clear case of Who Done the Deed--but nothing like actual forensic evidence to prosecute. In two of those cases the damage done by the perp was sufficient to destroy the business.

It is a common trope that a "computer hacker" (in the sense of a villain with a keyboard) is a 13-year-old kid with a Commodore 64. Nice character for a kids movie--but in reality, in every single instance I have ever been involved in, the villain is an employee who has been given notice or a contractor who knows he/she is not going to be renewed.

That's particularly true (and particularly dangerous) in a freewheeling we-trust-everybody computer environment. Like a startup where everybody learns the admin password on the network, and the sa password on the SQL Server data server cluster on their first day on the job. And those passwords never get changed.

More of those kinds of places exist than any of us want to think. And if Twitter bears any resemblance to that at all--or even a very faint resemblance to it--then HR simply has to treat any employee or contractor, no matter how cheery or helpful or brilliant or pregnant, as a security threat. Terminate their account privileges, walk 'em out the door.

Not nice. But that's the rules of the game. At least it has been for the 35 years I've been writing code.

If morale is so bad that you have to fire *all* the staff and the contractors out of fear they're going to sabotage the joint ... who's left to do the firing?

 

[CenterLess]

While certainly chaotic, it's not necessarily unheard of at a company that is overstaffed at the outset of a recession. The founder of Twitter literally just apologized for growing the staff too quickly and creating the conditions that led to massive layoffs.


LOL. So you basically want a forum member who disagrees with your interpretation to be canceled. How old-Twitter of you. Are you equally intolerant of people who only post once every couple of months when they agree with you?

Chaotic is the understatement of the decade.

I don't need your agreement. I *am* free to disagree with you.

 

[ScreamingFist]

Facebook. Instagram. Telegram. TikTok. Their website. The media by email and phone.

You know, all the other channels that they currently also use. They're losing a channel, and it'll be disruptive in the short term. But, by next year it won't be a big deal.

All of those are also driven

I got downvoted to hell for pointing this out with less detail, but yeah. Twitter is useful, and it fills an important unmet need, and it can be a critical outlet for information that's also remarkably democratic and low-friction. Nothing else allows that kind of real-time, crowd-sourced communication of news, events, and media, and nothing else has the user base or functionality to match it at this point. We will be poorer, even those of us who don't use it, if it's not available.

Case study: wildfires, here in Colorado and elsewhere in the West. One particular day this spring, we had FOUR wildfires start in this city in one day. By time the local news had an article up, there were hashtags for each one, and a hundred people were posting photos, maps, acreages, and threatened areas to Twitter. Offers to board animals were made, one guy helped another get access to an area where he had vehicles parked, the local fire department was answering evacuation questions directly. It was kind of incredible. And impossible, except on that platform.

Yep. The fact that Twitter is the last man standing in being able to have a proper linear feed is the killer feature that it still has. The cretin who suggested Facebook as an alternative, where 12 individual accounts orchestrated undermining COVID response across multiple countries by playing the Facebook algo, just shows their complete witlessness.

 

[Alfonse]

I don't think enticing people back to the office is the plan, returning to the office will be mandatory.

A free lunch is not the only way to show you care. Nor is it one of the first options. Does the employer provide a really good chair, do they provide a really good monitor, those are far more important than a "free lunch" to me.

There is also the question of whether the cafeteria is closing or not. If the cafeteria remains open and is offering lunch "at cost" that too would be a benefit. Even if its prices were similar to retail the cafeteria is a benefit due to its convenience. I've seen both of these cafeteria scenarios and employees saw both as nice benefits. I think the most important things to them were convenience and the food was healthier than fast food.

OK, but... is there any reason to believe that Elon Musk would actually do any of these? If not, then he's just taking away existing benefits while demanding that they work for longer.

 

[IncorrigibleTroll]

Interesting - and almost definitely on track. However, I did see a small note somewhere that SpaceX (you know - the one that has money from Uncle Sam to send stuff up into space?) has made a large ad purchase with Twitter.

Does anyone smell something wrong with that move? Next thing you know Tesla will also be doing it, and the Boring Company, Solar whatever-it-is, Giga-Factory - all will make huge ad purchases. Wonder how legal this is.

The Tesla bailout of Solar City was similarly sketchy, though Musk won the shareholder suit over it.