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Some claim Twitter is attempting to renegotiate. That may well be true. But this doesn't fit in well with the greater narrative. Since Elon's takeover of Twitt

by jmyeet 4y ago

Some claim Twitter is attempting to renegotiate. That may well be true. But this doesn't fit in well with the greater narrative. Since Elon's takeover of Twitter, it's been one PR disaster after the next. Mass layoffs, begging people to come back, cutting remote work, cutting in-office catering, the whole Twitter Blue debacle, unbanning some of the worst, the drop of advertising spend on Twitter (which, at least in part, is somewhat explained by the general market but part of it isn't), trying to fire the previous executives for cause to avoid golden parachutes, arguably not paying promised severance, Elon's controversial politics going front-and-center, the list goes on. Reputation matters. Not paying rent fits into the broader narrative that Twitter is desperately cutting costs and is haemorrhaging money. Elon's Tesla stock sales fit this too. How do you attract and retain talent when people aren't sure about the company's future or they see how easily Elon discards staff? Even in today's market, companies have to work to hire and retain good staff. And they can't completely rely on work visa indentured servitude, as much as they seem to be trying.

starkd 4y ago
They had to cut costs to keep away from the "fast lane to bankruptcy". When not pulling in enough revenue, you have to act quickly. https://youtu.be/HE5CTKqWEV0?t=3570 https://youtu.be/HE5CTKqWEV0?t=3570 Wasn't twitter supposed to stop working by now? They are still functioning, despite the layoffs. Maybe it worked?
- bigbillheck 4y ago
  They had a major outage a few days ago, and I see a steady stream of reports from people of little things not working.
  - starkd 4y ago
    It was not really an outage. Devices had to login again. I noticed having to do that.
    - giaour 4y ago
      Your experience was not the sum total of the incident. There was indeed a partial outage: https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-down-thousands-users-downdetector-012317520.html https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-down-thousands-users-downdete...
      - starkd 4y ago
        And it was fixed in due time.
- giaour 4y ago
  > Wasn't twitter supposed to stop working by now? They are still functioning, despite the layoffs. Maybe it worked? I still expect it to stop working gradually, then all at once. Saying that the fact that Twitter hasn't collapsed yet means the previous staffing level was not justified is a bit like saying you shouldn't have paid a builder to put in a foundation because your house hasn't fallen down yet.
  - starkd 4y ago
    I don't think anyone is truly shocked by the notion that Twitter is over-staffed with a lot of fat it can cut. They were not exactly employing a lot of "builders", as they had not updated any new features for quite some time.
    - georgemcbay 4y ago
      This reply seems to be assuming (like Musk seems to have done when he came in with the kitchen sink) that the only jobs of relevance there are engineers and product folks building new features yet the loss of their important revenue streams that are causing an existential crisis for the company seem to be primarily about losing people with "softer" jobs like compliance and advertiser relations. I'm sure there was some fat that could have been cut away from Twitter pre-Musk but its pretty clear the attempt to do it was made with a chainsaw and not a scalpel.
      - dragonwriter 4y ago
        > the loss of their important revenue streams that are causing an existential crisis for the company seem to be primarily about losing people with "softer" jobs like compliance and advertiser relations. Its mostly related to gaining a new CEO, and the resulting instability imposed by that CEO, not the presence or absence of particular subordinate staff. (Heck, a lot of it happened based on the discussions and purchase offer created uncertaintu, when all the staff were still there.)
      - starkd 4y ago
        When turning around a company, it's not uncommon strategy to move fast even if it creates a little chaos. There's been business books written about it. Some call it chaos theory. The new ceo comes in makes some important early decisions, stirs the pot a little. Meanwhile, the things needing to get done get done. When dealing with a large or semi-large organization that has a strong built-in stasis, not sure there is a better way. And, to be sure, Musk has gotten alot done in just a short time. He cut expenses, did a re-org of the company, and even did some product improvements, all while overseeing a massive document dump via the Twitter files in the interest of transparency. We can debate relative significance of all these things, but these are not trivial things.
- SilverBirch 4y ago
  The only reason they were in the fast lane to bankruptcy is that Musk voluntarily gave up almost all Twitter's revenue, he put them in that lane. They could have cut head count, massively reduced costs and restructured whilst simply saying "No policies will change, advertisers are safe" and stabilized the company over night. Instead they spooked advertisers which crippled their only revenue stream, and tried to claw it back with a Twitter Blue subscription that generates a laughably small amount of money.
- darth_avocado 4y ago
  > Wasn't twitter supposed to stop working by now? They are still functioning, despite the layoffs. Maybe it worked? It is mostly because the people left are working twice as much, long hours, holidays, weekends. And if you actually use the app, half the things aren’t working. Plus, your argument is more like “I fired the gardener after he tended the yard, it’s been a week, the yard looks just fine. Maybe I didn’t need the gardener?”
  - starkd 4y ago
    Works for me.
phpisthebest 4y ago
>>begging people to come back I dont believe that every actually happened. The most often cited case of that was the twitter thread about badge access which was proven to be a hoax much like Ligma Johnson Devs. The Media however does not fact check anything so any negative stories are just run with no validation >>Since Elon's takeover of Twitter, it's been one PR disaster after the next. Only if you are of a certain political persuasion so you see it as PR Disaster. >>Mass layoffs Those were need badly >>cutting in-office catering Also should have been cut, and never offered >>the whole Twitter Blue debacle, I agree here, probably the only thing we agree on >>unbanning some of the worst, This is what has made twitter fun again.... >> trying to fire the previous executives for cause to avoid golden parachutes Good they should be, they were terrible at their job and should not get any golden parachutes
- 93po 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - phpisthebest 4y ago
    And now flagged...

by jmyeet 4y ago

starkd 4y ago

They had to cut costs to keep away from the "fast lane to bankruptcy". When not pulling in enough revenue, you have to act quickly. https://youtu.be/HE5CTKqWEV0?t=3570 https://youtu.be/HE5CTKqWEV0?t=3570 Wasn't twitter supposed to stop working by now? They are still functioning, despite the layoffs. Maybe it worked?

bigbillheck 4y ago
They had a major outage a few days ago, and I see a steady stream of reports from people of little things not working.
- starkd 4y ago
  It was not really an outage. Devices had to login again. I noticed having to do that.
  - giaour 4y ago
    Your experience was not the sum total of the incident. There was indeed a partial outage: https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-down-thousands-users-downdetector-012317520.html https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-down-thousands-users-downdete...
    - starkd 4y ago
      And it was fixed in due time.
giaour 4y ago
> Wasn't twitter supposed to stop working by now? They are still functioning, despite the layoffs. Maybe it worked? I still expect it to stop working gradually, then all at once. Saying that the fact that Twitter hasn't collapsed yet means the previous staffing level was not justified is a bit like saying you shouldn't have paid a builder to put in a foundation because your house hasn't fallen down yet.
- starkd 4y ago
  I don't think anyone is truly shocked by the notion that Twitter is over-staffed with a lot of fat it can cut. They were not exactly employing a lot of "builders", as they had not updated any new features for quite some time.
  - georgemcbay 4y ago
    This reply seems to be assuming (like Musk seems to have done when he came in with the kitchen sink) that the only jobs of relevance there are engineers and product folks building new features yet the loss of their important revenue streams that are causing an existential crisis for the company seem to be primarily about losing people with "softer" jobs like compliance and advertiser relations. I'm sure there was some fat that could have been cut away from Twitter pre-Musk but its pretty clear the attempt to do it was made with a chainsaw and not a scalpel.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > the loss of their important revenue streams that are causing an existential crisis for the company seem to be primarily about losing people with "softer" jobs like compliance and advertiser relations. Its mostly related to gaining a new CEO, and the resulting instability imposed by that CEO, not the presence or absence of particular subordinate staff. (Heck, a lot of it happened based on the discussions and purchase offer created uncertaintu, when all the staff were still there.)
    - starkd 4y ago
      When turning around a company, it's not uncommon strategy to move fast even if it creates a little chaos. There's been business books written about it. Some call it chaos theory. The new ceo comes in makes some important early decisions, stirs the pot a little. Meanwhile, the things needing to get done get done. When dealing with a large or semi-large organization that has a strong built-in stasis, not sure there is a better way. And, to be sure, Musk has gotten alot done in just a short time. He cut expenses, did a re-org of the company, and even did some product improvements, all while overseeing a massive document dump via the Twitter files in the interest of transparency. We can debate relative significance of all these things, but these are not trivial things.
SilverBirch 4y ago
The only reason they were in the fast lane to bankruptcy is that Musk voluntarily gave up almost all Twitter's revenue, he put them in that lane. They could have cut head count, massively reduced costs and restructured whilst simply saying "No policies will change, advertisers are safe" and stabilized the company over night. Instead they spooked advertisers which crippled their only revenue stream, and tried to claw it back with a Twitter Blue subscription that generates a laughably small amount of money.
darth_avocado 4y ago
> Wasn't twitter supposed to stop working by now? They are still functioning, despite the layoffs. Maybe it worked? It is mostly because the people left are working twice as much, long hours, holidays, weekends. And if you actually use the app, half the things aren’t working. Plus, your argument is more like “I fired the gardener after he tended the yard, it’s been a week, the yard looks just fine. Maybe I didn’t need the gardener?”
- starkd 4y ago
  Works for me.

phpisthebest 4y ago

>>begging people to come back I dont believe that every actually happened. The most often cited case of that was the twitter thread about badge access which was proven to be a hoax much like Ligma Johnson Devs. The Media however does not fact check anything so any negative stories are just run with no validation >>Since Elon's takeover of Twitter, it's been one PR disaster after the next. Only if you are of a certain political persuasion so you see it as PR Disaster. >>Mass layoffs Those were need badly >>cutting in-office catering Also should have been cut, and never offered >>the whole Twitter Blue debacle, I agree here, probably the only thing we agree on >>unbanning some of the worst, This is what has made twitter fun again.... >> trying to fire the previous executives for cause to avoid golden parachutes Good they should be, they were terrible at their job and should not get any golden parachutes

93po 4y ago
[flagged]
- phpisthebest 4y ago
  And now flagged...