Posted on 11/17/2022 9:20:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I don’t think we’re about to see Twitter implode but if you’re on Twitter this evening there are a lot of people suggesting everyone who works there has quit. This latest round of departures started yesterday with an email Musk sent to the remaining work force (about half had been fired earlier this month).
Early Wednesday morning, the world’s richest man and newly installed Twitter CEO emailed the site’s employees with an ultimatum, obligating them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work ethic or leaving the company.
Musk argued that Twitter must be ready for a more “increasingly competitive world” and therefore employees must be ready to give more. CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan provided a screenshot of Musk’s surprise email.
In it, Musk wrote, “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.”
After mentioning that Twitter will become “much more engineering-driven,” he gave his employees a choice to get on board with his ambitions or leave the company. He added, “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” adding, “Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance.”
And according to this tech reporter for Fortune, most people have decided to leave.
As we’re all very aware, folks on visas are stuck, so thats who makes up most of the roughly 25% (or less than 1,000….) expected to stay. The actual impact is not yet known — there have been no internal comms about what comes next. We’re nearly 2 hours post deadline.
— Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes) November 17, 2022
Lets put this into perspective — at the beginning of this month, Twitter had 7,400 employees. Barely half way through the month, if 75% do actually stick to their decision today, the company will have shrunk by a whopping ~88%.
— Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes) November 18, 2022
Some employees posted a countdown video to 5pm. It sounds like all of these guys were leaving or expecting to be fired.
It’s been a ride pic.twitter.com/0VDf5hn2UA
— Matt Miller (@brainiaq2000) November 17, 2022
The NY Times is reporting the company is in disarray.
Hours before a Thursday deadline that Elon Musk had given Twitter employees to decide whether to stay or leave their jobs, the social media company appeared to be in disarray…
All the while, two people said, resignations started to roll in. By the deadline, 5 p.m. Eastern time, hundreds of Twitter employees appeared to have decided to depart with three months of severance pay, the people said. Twitter later announced via email that it would close “our office buildings” and disable employee badge access until Monday.
Others are predicting it’s imminent demise.
From one of the remaining Twitter employees: “It (Twitter) has about a week left before it’s dead.”
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) November 18, 2022
Musk himself seems to still be in a good mood.
How do you make a small fortune in social media?
Start out with a large one.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
But Twitter itself is awash in people predicting the end is near. Here’s what the trending topics sidebar looks like right now:
So lots of people are jumping in with predictions that Twitter may implode at any moment. Some are saying goodbye.
Hoping this doesn’t happen ⬇️ but just in case: it’s been wonderful tweeting with y’all! 🐣
As a backup, follow me on Instagram, same handle: @AOC – it’s really me there, as it is here.
Or sign up for emails, where I’ll share any other platforms I join: https://t.co/Tt9J3IlWW8 https://t.co/xfe7HNvEW1
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 18, 2022
Wait, we’re all saying goodbye to each other? This is really weird.
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) November 18, 2022
Twitter can’t end. There are so many people I haven’t talked shit to.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) November 18, 2022
I imagine this is what it will be like in the final days before the giant meteor or the Yellowstone eruption.
— Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) November 18, 2022
Others are just having fun with memes.
Goodbye twitter, been a good run. #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/fkkUZWz2oQ
— Bish 🗽 (@thebishundercov) November 18, 2022
Twitter HQ next fall #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/DCLnpGHPPb
— Zombae (@ZombaeVT) November 18, 2022
The Cat Memes will live on…
#RIPTwitter #CatsOfTwitter pic.twitter.com/lfWJb1sgvY— Cat Cosplay 🐈⬛ (@Cat_Cosplay) November 18, 2022
Somebody at Twitter HQ has pulled out a projector.
Someone is projecting multiple messages onto Twitter headquarters building in SF from a neighboring building.
pic.twitter.com/VuFqLvDyxT— Gia Vang (@Gia_Vang) November 18, 2022
But the reality is it’ll probably still be there in the morning.
It'll be very awkward when after hours of eulogizing this site doesn't actually go down, it'll be like saying goodbye to a date and then realizing you're walking to the same subway station
— Keef Girgo (PARODY ACCOUNT) (@CaseyMalone) November 18, 2022
Update: So true…
Nice to see Twitter going out as it lived: Hysterically overreacting to the latest news development, compulsively sharing false viral tweets that confirm its priors, and repeatedly mistaking satirical accounts for real ones. Godspeed.
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) November 18, 2022
Also:
And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
I avoided the manager route like the plague. I enjoy designing and implementing systems while never being particularly good at human relationships. Although I am retired, I continue to do a lot of contracted work. My domain is designing microprocessor based instrumentation and then writing the software that runs it. The instruments sense and control in both the analog and digital realms. That makes me a bit twiddler. It is obvious that I could have made a lot more money in management; however, money was never a big driving force for me.
I have also written numerous cute little operating systems, communications protocols, and even specialty compilers. This is all a source of enjoyment, much like being paid to entertain myself.
Computing is a broad and deep pool of things to do. I taught Embedded Computing in high school for a few years. The kids learned stuff right down to logic gates and Boolean Algebra. They programmed first in assembler and then C/C++ on Arduino devices or bare ICs if they so chose. About 50% loved it while the other 50% really struggled.
The nerve of that guy Musk. He actually expects his employees to show up at the office and do actual work when they’re there.
I used to do some of the stuff you talked about. I found assembly to be quite entertaining to write, I appreciated its efficiency, and also did a lot of C code. I would have loved your class, but I pretty much had to teach myself.
Working at home saves me 15 hours a week from commuting and $100 in expenses.
You’ve never read Twitter’s curation rules, have you?
Engineering is an afterthought.
> You are older than I. And I am old. We used to call ourselves programmers.
My first programming experience was flipping toggle switches on the front panel of a PDP. I used to write machine code (i.e. Hex)in spiral notebooks whilst watching the Late Late Late Show on TV. I was so excited when I got to use punch cards and paper tape (I got over it). I can still remember computers with round screens. My first computer is an exhibit in the Computer History Museum.
My mom worked in the era where programming included wiring plugboards.
The way things are going there might not be a Twitter for Trump to return to. Speaking of which, why wasn’t he invited back to Twitter the moment Musk took ownership?
The PDP-11 was my favorite mini-computer while the 68000 series was my favorite microprocessor. Both were very assembler friendly instruction sets.
Computer Science was very new when I graduated. I had to teach myself most everything myself as well, particularly the digital logic. I did have powerful mentors along the way. The first was an IBM Customer Engineer who maintained the computers on campus. He taught me digital logic and the complete inter-workings of an IBM 1130 computer. The next mentor was a guy who retired from the Bell Telephone Laboratory. My final mentor was one of "Grace's Girls", and ancient lady who worked on the FORTRAN compiler project under the direction of Admiral Grace Hopper.
I kind of had a charmed existence. I'd still be teaching in school; however, I'm too old to get a teaching certificate.
RE: Speaking of which, why wasn’t he invited back to Twitter the moment Musk took ownership?
Trump already has a competing platform: TRUTH SOCIAL
It seems we both came up through the age of the mini-computer and into the microcomputer. Most people have never heard of a mini, yet the dominated the industry for many years.
I entered the scene in the IBM 1400 and IBM 360 time frame. I saw plug board unit record machines in use, but never got involved with them.
Musk is separating the negative people from his company. Bravo!
Absolutely.
Compare to the ::crickets:: from the Elon-hating media as Bezos lays off scads Amazon employees.
Amazon begins mass layoffs among its corporate workforce (AP)
1. Musk will learn that he can run the company with a skeleton staff that DOES KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY WORK
2. Those snowflakes that USED to work at Twitter will find that not many new employers are interested in hiring them.
A TRUE WIN - WIN !!!!
Sometimes you have to clean out every stall in the barn & disinfect the surroundings-———
“ He should have done these firings slowly and systematically while hiring replacements”
The problem with that theory is that the ranks of employees are filled with people who would sabotage the entire thing. It’s better to run with a skeleton crew maintaining the status quo than allowing saboteurs to remain.
I seriously doubt it.
Doing ‘slow firings’ would have created massive sabotage, IMO.
Methinks most all of those Tweebs or whatever they called themselves never had any engineering or IT experience to start with and depended a lot on edits and orders to a very small group of people who were responsible for implementing their censoring. The rest of what they do/did is nothing but woke bullshit that was about to be discovered anyway.
“ I’m very sure it was a bloated workforce as well.”
Project Veritas has undercover video of a Twitter employee stating that he only works about 4 hours per week. If that holds over the entire company, they could get by with 10% of their workforce and still only work 40 hours per week. If they actually work 80 they would only need 5%, and that is to do the same job. Remove the unnecessary functions and the need is even lower. Simply supporting what already exists for the time being lowers it even further.
It’s way too early to know if Musk is being foolish or not. I wouldn’t bet against him.
You NEVER SLOWLY remove potential SABOTAGE ...
You cut it off quickly.
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