Twitter Trainwreck

[DETRoadster]

Anyone else fascinated by this future management book chapter in how not to run a company?

- Buy an ad revenue dependent company for more than its worth
- Piss off / freak out all your advertisers
- Fire 1/2 your workers
- Think you have leverage to threaten the remaining ones and lose even more

Best guess is that twitter has fewer than 2k employees left, down from over 7k.

Entire departments are gone. Payroll, communications, etc. Some of those functions like finance and payroll are pretty easy to outsource but still the business disruption has got to be painful.

Musk told everyone that he only wanted "hardcore" workers who were ready to work crazy hours, now with no work from home ability. When you really put the screws to people, the best and brightest are the ones who will jump ship because they can. What you are left with are the mediocre hang-ons who arent marketable and cant easily find a better place to work.

I think this whole thing is a massive miscalculation by Musk. He's proven time and again that he can build successful businesses where people are dedicated to him almost like a cult. But taking over an existing business with an existing culture and trying to bash people into your cult following, no, you cant do that. Cults are carefully grown and cultivated from the ground up, they cant overtake and succeed.

So, anyone else finding this train wreck highly interesting?

[BMW F22]

Definitely interesting and I hope they all leave Elon in the dust. It’s a good example for all to see.

[3.0L]

.

[minn19]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

Anyone else fascinated by this future management book chapter in how not to run a company?

- Buy an ad revenue dependent company for more than its worth
- Piss off / freak out all your advertisers
- Fire 1/2 your workers
- Think you have leverage to threaten the remaining ones and lose even more

Best guess is that twitter has fewer than 2k employees left, down from over 7k.

Entire departments are gone. Payroll, communications, etc. Some of those functions like finance and payroll are pretty easy to outsource but still the business disruption has got to be painful.

Musk told everyone that he only wanted "hardcore" workers who were ready to work crazy hours, now with no work from home ability. When you really put the screws to people, the best and brightest are the ones who will jump ship because they can. What you are left with are the mediocre hang-ons who arent marketable and cant easily find a better place to work.

I think this whole thing is a massive miscalculation by Musk. He's proven time and again that he can build successful businesses where people are dedicated to him almost like a cult. But taking over an existing business with an existing culture and trying to bash people into your cult following, no, you cant do that. Cults are carefully grown and cultivated from the ground up, they cant overtake and succeed.

So, anyone else finding this train wreck highly interesting?

Can you imagine how his fellow investors are freaking out? Fascinating to watch someone completely melt down and flush 44 billion down the crapper.

I feel really bad for the poor souls stuck there or the ones forced to leave because of his idiocy/trying to be a tough guy. He’s effing up thousands of lives and appears to give zero effs about it. Tired of these sociopath corporate a hole types that think they are the king (or queen) of everything.

[infinitekidM2C]

Twainweck.

[2000cs]

I’m not a Musk fan but I think he is making excellent moves, swiftly. There will be some missteps, easily correctable (like the blue check thing last week). But overall this will be good for the business and realizing its real potential.

He runs “hardcore” at SpaceX and Tesla from what I’ve been told, also.

[Watching The World Burn]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

Anyone else fascinated by this future management book chapter in how not to run a company?

- Buy an ad revenue dependent company for more than its worth
- Piss off / freak out all your advertisers
- Fire 1/2 your workers
- Think you have leverage to threaten the remaining ones and lose even more

Best guess is that twitter has fewer than 2k employees left, down from over 7k.

Entire departments are gone. Payroll, communications, etc. Some of those functions like finance and payroll are pretty easy to outsource but still the business disruption has got to be painful.

Musk told everyone that he only wanted "hardcore" workers who were ready to work crazy hours, now with no work from home ability. When you really put the screws to people, the best and brightest are the ones who will jump ship because they can. What you are left with are the mediocre hang-ons who arent marketable and cant easily find a better place to work.

I think this whole thing is a massive miscalculation by Musk. He's proven time and again that he can build successful businesses where people are dedicated to him almost like a cult. But taking over an existing business with an existing culture and trying to bash people into your cult following, no, you cant do that. Cults are carefully grown and cultivated from the ground up, they cant overtake and succeed.

So, anyone else finding this train wreck highly interesting?

Oh it is super interesting, have some popcorn, sit back and see if this strategy pays off. One way of looking at it is he got people to quit without severance (in some cases) who were probably people that would have opposed the direction he'll want to take Twitter. So that clears a path for him to replace those with people that would be loyal to him (cult like), but on the flip side, he is going to have to staff quickly to replace those that have left, and good luck doing so in this environment I think.

I suspect this is a miscalculation as well by him, but time will tell. Never liked Twitter, so has zero impact on me, but it will be interesting nonetheless.

Originally Posted by minn19

Can you imagine how his fellow investors are freaking out? Fascinating to watch someone completely melt down and flush 44 billion down the crapper.

I feel really bad for the poor souls stuck there or the ones forced to leave because of his idiocy/trying to be a tough guy. He’s effing up thousands of lives and appears to give zero effs about it. Tired of these sociopath corporate a hole types that think they are the king (or queen) of everything.

Who was forced to leave because of his idiocy? As far as I know, pretty much everyone was offered their job (maybe some weren't, but nothing major that I heard), but droves of people chose to quit. That's different than being forced to leave. If you don't want to do your job, you are free to leave. But I don't feel sorry for anyone that chooses that - it was their choice. If it was that bad, then they obviously are in a better place having left right? And presumably, if they are decent, they'll find better work. If they aren't, well, they shouldn't have left.

It is his money, he can blow it however he wants, and nobody should feel sorry for him either when it is wasted or he makes crap decisions with it. Some twitter employees were calling it a "toxic" workplace...I doubt that. I just think their little woke souls couldn't handle being asked to produce and show up in person. And if it was toxic, then good that they left - that's the only way it will change. Either way, their departure is a good thing.

[minn19]

Originally Posted by Watching The World Burn

Oh it is super interesting, have some popcorn, sit back and see if this strategy pays off. One way of looking at it is he got people to quit without severance (in some cases) who were probably people that would have opposed the direction he'll want to take Twitter. So that clears a path for him to replace those with people that would be loyal to him (cult like), but on the flip side, he is going to have to staff quickly to replace those that have left, and good luck doing so in this environment I think.

I suspect this is a miscalculation as well by him, but time will tell. Never liked Twitter, so has zero impact on me, but it will be interesting nonetheless.




Who was forced to leave because of his idiocy? As far as I know, pretty much everyone was offered their job (maybe some weren't, but nothing major that I heard), but droves of people chose to quit. That's different than being forced to leave. If you don't want to do your job, you are free to leave. But I don't feel sorry for anyone that chooses that - it was their choice. If it was that bad, then they obviously are in a better place having left right? And presumably, if they are decent, they'll find better work. If they aren't, well, they shouldn't have left.

It is his money, he can blow it however he wants, and nobody should feel sorry for him either when it is wasted or he makes crap decisions with it. Some twitter employees were calling it a "toxic" workplace...I doubt that. I just think their little woke souls couldn't handle being asked to produce and show up in person. And if it was toxic, then good that they left - that's the only way it will change. Either way, their departure is a good thing.

Obviously disagree and he is having major problems at both SpaceX and Tesla. It’s not all his money and great choice, give your life to a company and this megalomaniac or leave. Obviously most “chose” to leave and has been said usually the most talented ones. What a genius Musk is………

[DETRoadster]

I learned the hard way not to bet against Elon. I sold all my Tesla stock after he appeared to melt down with the whole cave diver pedo incident. He seemed unhinged, was under SEC investigation, making flame throwers, and smoking weed with Joe Rogan. I had enough and pulled the plug at the low $300 mark. Damn it if he didnt pull it back on the rails and send that stock to the moon.

I think he's made some serious miscalculations with Twitter though I cant help but wonder if 2000cs isnt correct. Can Musk pull it off and turn this thing into the next massive success?

If Twitter was still public and the stock had tanked due to all the shenanigans, would you be tempted to buy? I kinda feel like I would. I hate myself for saying it but I'd want in on the dip.

[dreamingat30fps]

What is this twitter you all speak of?

[DETRoadster]

WA Post just quoted a Twitter employee:

"I know of six critical systems (like 'serving tweets' levels of critical) which no longer have any engineers," a former employee said. "There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop."

You gotta wonder if some disgruntled engineer who is literally the last one out the door in his department is going to lob a digital wrench into the machine and watch the whole thing crash.

[________]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

Anyone else fascinated by this future management book chapter in how not to run a company?

- Buy an ad revenue dependent company for more than its worth
- Piss off / freak out all your advertisers
- Fire 1/2 your workers
- Think you have leverage to threaten the remaining ones and lose even more

Best guess is that twitter has fewer than 2k employees left, down from over 7k.

Entire departments are gone. Payroll, communications, etc. Some of those functions like finance and payroll are pretty easy to outsource but still the business disruption has got to be painful.

Musk told everyone that he only wanted "hardcore" workers who were ready to work crazy hours, now with no work from home ability. When you really put the screws to people, the best and brightest are the ones who will jump ship because they can. What you are left with are the mediocre hang-ons who arent marketable and cant easily find a better place to work.

I think this whole thing is a massive miscalculation by Musk. He's proven time and again that he can build successful businesses where people are dedicated to him almost like a cult. But taking over an existing business with an existing culture and trying to bash people into your cult following, no, you cant do that. Cults are carefully grown and cultivated from the ground up, they cant overtake and succeed.

So, anyone else finding this train wreck highly interesting?

I disagree with your assessments of the management of the company, and it’s too soon to tell if what he’s doing is right or wrong.

Let’s meet again next year and discuss the results, and then write the book.

[minn19]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

I learned the hard way not to bet against Elon. I sold all my Tesla stock after he appeared to melt down with the whole cave diver pedo incident. He seemed unhinged, was under SEC investigation, making flame throwers, and smoking weed with Joe Rogan. I had enough and pulled the plug at the low $300 mark. Damn it if he didnt pull it back on the rails and send that stock to the moon.

I think he's made some serious miscalculations with Twitter though I cant help but wonder if 2000cs isnt correct. Can Musk pull it off and turn this thing into the next massive success?

If Twitter was still public and the stock had tanked due to all the shenanigans, would you be tempted to buy? I kinda feel like I would. I hate myself for saying it but I'd want in on the dip.

Very good points, we’ll see as they say. How many times can one flirt with disaster though before it happens. Interesting to see what happens at his trial today.

[DETRoadster]

Loving this: https://twitter.com/christoq/status/...0%2Fframe.html

Space Karen.

Someone using Twitter to show someone else trolling Musk by projecting some pretty good zingers on the side of Twitter's shuttered HQ. True test of Elon's new hardcore free speech platform will be whether people are allowed to call the man himself into question.

[BMW F22]

Past performance does not guarantee future success.

[Watching The World Burn]

Originally Posted by minn19

Obviously disagree and he is having major problems at both SpaceX and Tesla. It’s not all his money and great choice, give your life to a company and this megalomaniac or leave. Obviously most “chose” to leave and has been said usually the most talented ones. What a genius Musk is………

Well, I can't exactly say I feel bad for the investors either, same rules apply to them. They hitched their cart to him, it will pay or it won't. And if they don't like what he says / does, they won't provide any more money. Simple. It is a lot of his money though.

Still, what is wrong with the choice? Nobody is being forced to work against their will which is where I'd draw the line. So either you work hard (and are paid commeasurate for it - better than the standard 9-5) or you leave for a different opportunity. Why is that a bad thing? Why does it matter that the most talented ones leave? They are the ones he should try to keep, if he doesn't, that's on him, but they are still going to be successful at whatever they do (probably). So they'll land on their feet. And the muskrat will either pivot the company such that it makes money, or he'll lose big. Again, I don't see an issue. Risk / benefit.

I do strongly suspect though that a lot of the workers who quit are workers that would have dragged their feet silently and subverted and opposed the direction Musk will take it in, which would have led to Twitter's demise anyway, so I think his actions might even be smart here...but it is heavily reliant on him being able to replace that staff with a sufficient enough workforce (maybe less people needed overall if they are working harder) that have bought in to the direction he wants to go.

He's the employer, it is his call which direction Twitter goes, not the employees. Do you disagree?

[cmyx6go]

He bought the company and wants to change the culture. In order to do that, he needs to remove those that don't agree with the changes and will stand in his way . Did he do it like a bull in a china shop - yes. Was it the right move? Stand by, time will tell.

[minn19]

Originally Posted by Watching The World Burn

Well, I can't exactly say I feel bad for the investors either, same rules apply to them. They hitched their cart to him, it will pay or it won't. And if they don't like what he says / does, they won't provide any more money. Simple. It is a lot of his money though.

Still, what is wrong with the choice? Nobody is being forced to work against their will which is where I'd draw the line. So either you work hard (and are paid commeasurate for it - better than the standard 9-5) or you leave for a different opportunity. Why is that a bad thing? Why does it matter that the most talented ones leave? They are the ones he should try to keep, if he doesn't, that's on him, but they are still going to be successful at whatever they do (probably). So they'll land on their feet. And the muskrat will either pivot the company such that it makes money, or he'll lose big. Again, I don't see an issue. Risk / benefit.

I do strongly suspect though that a lot of the workers who quit are workers that would have dragged their feet silently and subverted and opposed the direction Musk will take it in, which would have led to Twitter's demise anyway, so I think his actions might even be smart here...but it is heavily reliant on him being able to replace that staff with a sufficient enough workforce (maybe less people needed overall if they are working harder) that have bought in to the direction he wants to go.

He's the employer, it is his call which direction Twitter goes, not the employees. Do you disagree?

I agree with some things and that things are the way they are in the US especially and corporate culture in general. I very much disagree with it continuing though. What is the point of Musk coming in and making enemies with thousands of people? Many who he needs as has been shown by his backtracking on some of this. How does this help anything? Also, study after study has shown that employees with better work life balance are much more productive. I think we are nuts what we ask employees to do in some cases and it is counter productive usually for all involved. Just because something has been done one way forever doesn’t mean it is the right way. And no, a lot of people don’t have a choice and just have to take it for various reasons.

Musk still may turn it around, but he has definitely made it harder for himself and everyone else their that truly wants to stay and turn it around. Again, what is the point of that?

[Steeler]

Give EM a year and see where he takes the Twitter brand.
Payments and e-commerce is his target and he will be a force.

He didn't get Binance (CZ) interested for nothing.

[floridaorange]

I'd like to see a poll thread on who here has ever regularly used twitter?

[minn19]

Last, why is it assumed that if someone doesn’t want to go “hardcore” they are automatically considered slackers and not productive/important employees?

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

Anyone else fascinated by this future management book chapter in how not to run a company?

I mean, what you're saying is that you could do better, or that you know something he doesn't. Yeah, not buying that, no matter at what cheap price you're selling.

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

I think this whole thing is a massive miscalculation by Musk.

And that's because you aren't him, and don't see what he sees. If you were...

It's not only possible that he's making mistakes, but probable. However, he's Elon, he's learning things from his approach that other people just won't/can't.

Give it time.