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Twitter is now asking some fired workers to please come back

30 points by ljahier 4y ago

blinded 4y ago
If true not surprised. It’s also not a thing that is unique to Twitter.
- Finnucane 4y ago
  True, but few ceos make a big public stink about how overstuffed the company is, abruptly and arbitrarily fire half the staff a few days in, with almost no notice, then are like oh wait…
  - blinded 4y ago
    I don't have the data, but I think what usually happens is more people leave (ie put in their two weeks) once they see everyone get fired.
tus666 4y ago
Why not do something less humiliating and just go back out to the market for new engineers under a banner like "Twitter looking for a new breed of engineers to build fresh original capabilities" Or something...
- o_m 4y ago
  They probably want submissive workers that just do what they are told and are easily exploited. It might be a good strategy if you want loyal yes-men and get rid of those skeptical of Elon.
bryan_w 4y ago
I suspect that they ran into something like, "Hey, none of the batch jobs ran today because of DST changeover, and we fired the batch jobs team"
alexharrisnyc 4y ago
I would assume this might have to die with WARN acts?
- _cenw 4y ago
  I'd assume Musk planned on just eating any settlement. This looks like the few people that are left and supposedly sleep in the building can't do all the things required to keep Twitter operating. I mean, they fired their entire SRE team. That alone will cause things to fall over and be left unfixed.
sagarkamat 4y ago
While I totally sympathize with the schadenfreude, I won't be surprised if Elon himself fully expected to do this. They still end up with fewer workers than they had before and now know for certain they people they hired back were indeed important for day-to-day functioning. Faster process than going through each employee's job function individually. And I won't be surprised if the severance terms were structured such that those refusing to come back now before signing their severance offers, are considered to be quitting and hence don't get their severance pay. But IANAL so not certain of that.
- _cenw 4y ago
  Oh c'mon, this is not an Elon galaxy brain move. They could've just slowly laid off people instead. And no, people got fired on the spot, some with dubious cause and against state labor laws.
  - aeternum 4y ago
    A slow layoff is terrible for morale. Much better to cut deep then bump the salaries/reward the ones that stay. A drawn-out layoff is a great way to lose top talent as uncertainty is stressful and they will begin interviewing elsewhere.
    - iostream25 4y ago
      [dead]
  - sagarkamat 4y ago
    The layoff emails on Twitter had a January separation date and severance would come later this week.
JoeMayoBot 4y ago
No surprise - there was no way for them to do proper planning within the short time they made the decision.
_cenw 4y ago
some additional context, they don't seem picky about who can return either: https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1589075543420325888 https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1589075543420325888 "sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday."
- simondotau 4y ago
  Assuming that’s an accurate quote, I wouldn’t say it’s fair to describe it as not being “picky”. Returning candidates are self-selecting by whether they want to return (good for corporate morale) and then only if they can rationalise the value of their role in a way that convinces Twitter execs/HR.
simondotau 4y ago
Surely it would have been more remarkable if a company lays off 3,700 employees and exactly zero mistakes are made. A company like Twitter is impossibly complex, and it's very likely that some number of people are legitimately important, but their importance cannot be seen from a top-down view. I see it as a healthy sign that Twitter management are rapidly identifying and rectifying any missteps.
- iostream25 4y ago
- andsoitis 4y ago
  > A company like Twitter is impossibly complex And that's precisely why you take care in making decisions (like layoffs) and understand the business landscape (advertising), instead of shooting from the hip and surrounding yourself with yes-men.
michaelbrave 4y ago
How many people would go back to a job that had fired them? not sure I would
slimebot80 4y ago
Steve Jobs returning to Apple meant layoffs, but it was a month later. After analysis and planning. He didn't do it on the same day, while carrying a sink into the office. Elon is a showman. Constantly overpromising on things that don't exist. In this case, he's allowed himself to be fooled by his cheering twitter fanbase. But it's not as real as he thinks.
vagab0nd 4y ago
"You might also like Margin Call (2011)."

30 points by ljahier 4y ago

blinded 4y ago

If true not surprised. It’s also not a thing that is unique to Twitter.

Finnucane 4y ago
True, but few ceos make a big public stink about how overstuffed the company is, abruptly and arbitrarily fire half the staff a few days in, with almost no notice, then are like oh wait…
- blinded 4y ago
  I don't have the data, but I think what usually happens is more people leave (ie put in their two weeks) once they see everyone get fired.

tus666 4y ago

Why not do something less humiliating and just go back out to the market for new engineers under a banner like "Twitter looking for a new breed of engineers to build fresh original capabilities" Or something...

o_m 4y ago
They probably want submissive workers that just do what they are told and are easily exploited. It might be a good strategy if you want loyal yes-men and get rid of those skeptical of Elon.

bryan_w 4y ago

I suspect that they ran into something like, "Hey, none of the batch jobs ran today because of DST changeover, and we fired the batch jobs team"

alexharrisnyc 4y ago

I would assume this might have to die with WARN acts?

_cenw 4y ago
I'd assume Musk planned on just eating any settlement. This looks like the few people that are left and supposedly sleep in the building can't do all the things required to keep Twitter operating. I mean, they fired their entire SRE team. That alone will cause things to fall over and be left unfixed.

sagarkamat 4y ago

While I totally sympathize with the schadenfreude, I won't be surprised if Elon himself fully expected to do this. They still end up with fewer workers than they had before and now know for certain they people they hired back were indeed important for day-to-day functioning. Faster process than going through each employee's job function individually. And I won't be surprised if the severance terms were structured such that those refusing to come back now before signing their severance offers, are considered to be quitting and hence don't get their severance pay. But IANAL so not certain of that.

_cenw 4y ago
Oh c'mon, this is not an Elon galaxy brain move. They could've just slowly laid off people instead. And no, people got fired on the spot, some with dubious cause and against state labor laws.
- aeternum 4y ago
  A slow layoff is terrible for morale. Much better to cut deep then bump the salaries/reward the ones that stay. A drawn-out layoff is a great way to lose top talent as uncertainty is stressful and they will begin interviewing elsewhere.
  - iostream25 4y ago
    [dead]
- sagarkamat 4y ago
  The layoff emails on Twitter had a January separation date and severance would come later this week.

JoeMayoBot 4y ago

No surprise - there was no way for them to do proper planning within the short time they made the decision.

_cenw 4y ago

some additional context, they don't seem picky about who can return either: https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1589075543420325888 https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1589075543420325888 "sorry to @- everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday."

simondotau 4y ago
Assuming that’s an accurate quote, I wouldn’t say it’s fair to describe it as not being “picky”. Returning candidates are self-selecting by whether they want to return (good for corporate morale) and then only if they can rationalise the value of their role in a way that convinces Twitter execs/HR.

simondotau 4y ago

Surely it would have been more remarkable if a company lays off 3,700 employees and exactly zero mistakes are made. A company like Twitter is impossibly complex, and it's very likely that some number of people are legitimately important, but their importance cannot be seen from a top-down view. I see it as a healthy sign that Twitter management are rapidly identifying and rectifying any missteps.

iostream25 4y ago
andsoitis 4y ago
> A company like Twitter is impossibly complex And that's precisely why you take care in making decisions (like layoffs) and understand the business landscape (advertising), instead of shooting from the hip and surrounding yourself with yes-men.

michaelbrave 4y ago

How many people would go back to a job that had fired them? not sure I would

slimebot80 4y ago

Steve Jobs returning to Apple meant layoffs, but it was a month later. After analysis and planning. He didn't do it on the same day, while carrying a sink into the office. Elon is a showman. Constantly overpromising on things that don't exist. In this case, he's allowed himself to be fooled by his cheering twitter fanbase. But it's not as real as he thinks.

vagab0nd 4y ago

"You might also like Margin Call (2011)."