Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to 'hardcore' Twitter or take severance

[jerseyjim]

Source: Washington Post

Commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave the company with severance pay.

Anyone who did not sign the pledge by 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday was told they would receive three months of severance pay, the message said.

In the midnight email, which was shared with The Washington Post, Musk said Twitter “will need to be extremely hardcore” going forward. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” he said. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

Snip---

(This is my very first post, ever.)

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/16/musk-twitter-email-ultimatum-termination/

---

I've worked for tyrants during my career, but, I never experienced the likes of Elon Musk. I usually quit sweatshops and I would urge the employees of Twitter to take the severance and leave. There is no glory in permitting your boss to force you into extreme servitude.

Please, please, please QUIT! Don't let him get away with it.

[snowybirdie]

1. Hello

and welcome. First post is the hardest. P.S. Musk is a jerk.

[jerseyjim]

4. Thank you. It feels good to be welcomed!

[hlthe2b]

5. Well, you nailed your first post AND Musk. Welcome!

[Cattledog]

2. I see a lot of Gen Z and Millennials giving Musk the finger while leaving.

The severance pkg. is BS. The typical severance from a big corporation is usually 2 weeks for every year employed.

[AllTooEasy]

74. Right! Has Musk seen the unemployment rate?

3.7% nationally. 3.9% in Cali. Probably 0% in the tech/cyber/software industry.

Good Luck with those threats

[Roy Rolling]

3. Perfect

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[Generic Brad]

6. Quality of work is more important than quantity of work

I hope the entire staff resigns on him. Life does not revolve around Elon Musk.

[jerseyjim]

8. This is the world that The Party of "ME" wants..

Otherwise they are considered lazy slackers who don't deserve any "handouts."

[barbtries]

41. he begs to differ nt

[Joinfortmill]

7. Wants to destroy Twitter.

[BlueKota]

11. I agree

His massive ego took a beating from Twitter users, and he is petty and vein, and wants to destroy it. He doesn't care how much he loses 8n the process.

[GreenWave]

19. Welcome to DU!

PS: I make that typo too!

[BlueKota]

21. Thank you!

[speak easy]

12. Musk wants half the remaining workforce to quit.

He announced he was going to sack 75% of the workforce, but so far has sacked 50%.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Join I agree with you.

Destroying twitter looks like his goal from the beginning.

What is his motive do you think?

Welcome to DU!

[Hieronymus Phact]

26. I'm just not seeing it in that light

It's still tough for me to think he overpaid by 5x for the purpose of dramatically burning it down when he could just shut it off if that's the goal.
I think he bought it for the same reason Bezos bought the WP, to influence the public debate in his favor. Burning it down on purpose makes no sense in that light. I think he's just flailing around in a business he never understood. His childish comments and poor judgment seem to fit that pattern.
He's an engineer so it makes sense that he could successfully oversee Tesla or SpaceX, but What prior experience does he have in social media? That's a business dealing with people and all their inconsistencies and unexpected behavior. Engineers hate that out-of-control stuff. I think he's simply out of his league, and we're watching the Dunning-Kruger effect playing out in public.

The Dunning-Kruger effect occurs when a person's lack of knowledge and skills in a certain area cause them to overestimate their own competence. By contrast, this effect also causes those who excel in a given area to think the task is simple for everyone, and underestimate their relative abilities as well.

[Irish_Dem]

30. I would agree with you if the destruction had proceeded at a slower pace.

But he seemed hell bent on destroying it from the getgo.

Musk has been in cahoots with the Saudis who hate the US.

[DBoon]

63. yes

While we in the US have a very jaded view of twitter, various dictators throughout the world view it as a threat that permits quick mobilization of the population against their unpopular policies

[Irish_Dem]

68. Exactly. Dictators hate social media. A threat to their regimes.

For the right price Musk could have done their dirty work for them.

[Old Okie]

75. MUSK and the Saudis

I heard about the Saudis being partners with him on MSM and agreed that this needs some looking into the connection. Saudis definitely not into freedom of speech. Yellen was reportedly quizzed on this and said she did not consider it an issue. If China being involved in Ticktock is big issue, why isn't this an issue.

[Irish_Dem]

76. Exactly, our enemies are engaged in information warfare against us.

There is no doubt, but no one seems to care enough to do anything about it.

[womanofthehills]

83. Saudis have been stockholders in Twitter for 10 yrs

Maybe you don’t remember, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on the news rejecting Elon’s bid to buy Twitter. Alwaleed transferred his Twitter stocks to Elon.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/billionaire-prince-alwaleed-rejects-elon-musk-s-twitter-bid/ar-AAWej4E

[localroger]

33. Someone else said he bought Twitter thinking it is a technology company, but it's really a community

Everything he's done at Twitter makes sense in the way that you might manage a newly acquired but poorly performing manufacturing operation. He doesn't understand why Twitter needs so many employees because he doesn't understand the importance of content moderation to keep the community from falling apart and tweaking the feed algorithms to maximize ad revenue without wrecking the customer experience. He thinks if he has enough warm bodies to keep the servers online and write the software to implement his imperial demands, that's enough.

When computers were first starting to appear in business one of the cautionary tales I read was of a boss who had an office full of bright accounting people who listened to his vague and overblown dictates, figured out what he really meant, and did what needed to be done. But then he got a computer and fired most of the people. And of course the computer operated on the maxim "garbage in, garbage out," nothing got done right, and within a couple of years the business folded.

[Shipwack]

50. Agree 100%! nt

[Irish_Dem]

69. Many managers/owners think their employees could be replaced by trained monkeys.

I worked in a healthcare clinic where the new boss thought the highly trained MDs, PhDs, RNs could be
replaced by anyone off the street. Had no concept of education, training, state licensure, board certifications, etc.

[plimsoll]

49. He's not an engineer, he's an economist.

It's true he has a physics background as well, but in a very real sense he lacks the discipline an engineer would have acquired or started out with. You're correct that he blundered into the realm where actual people behave like actual people, but in that respect he's a textbook Macro economist, or probably more accurately an Ayn Rand fanboy. "The model says they'll just worship me because I'm a producer." Some will but the people who are left at Twit will be the young versions of people the media finds on Cletus safari's to a deep red part of the country.

He's not trying to destroy Twit, he just assumes someone won't replace it and he'll have a monopoly.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

71. You have it correct. All of your post. . . nt

[GoneOffShore]

98. He's an engineer? Ah, everything makes sense now! Because engineers know everything!

[Javaman]

28. I think it was, much like himself, petty and small...

there was a kid who was tracking him via twitter. he tried to get the kid banned. no dice.

now he wants to burn it down.

[Miguelito Loveless]

44. Overpaying for the company, then borrowing against his Tesla stake

just to "destroy the company" makes no sense. Buying in a fit of narcissistic pique thinking he can "fix" Twitter and remake it in his own image makes more sense. Self-destructive hubris is very expensive.

[Bluejeans]

9. Heard this sort of bullshit before at a dot-com

Heard the same sort of "dedicate your life to our company" bullshit at channelpoint.com in 2000.

I'll tell Musk the same thing I told the executives at channelpoint.com when they started having rolling waves of layoffs:

"You can't lay off your way to prosperity."

Oh, what happened to channelpoint.com? It dissolved into the dustbin of history as Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2002 or so.

[BonnieJW]

39. Years ago I worked for the CFO

of a company. One year there was a downturn in the economy and everyone was afraid layoffs were eminent. I asked my boss about it and he said they were trimming back employees through attrition and no one would be laid off. He said layoffs would make the bottom line look good for one year, but what would you do the next year? The CEO sent out an email to the executive staff saying that any executive who suggested layoffs as a remedy for the financial crisis, would be the first person in that division to get laid off

[plimsoll]

51. He's going to lose his celebrity CEO status.

That kind of analysis is heresy.

[Otto_Harper]

55. Much the same at the division of GE I was at during the Jack Welch nightmare

The primary product of the division was engineering services. His minions kept wanting us to lay off engineers, as their metrics showed we had too many engineers.

[catbyte]

10. Yep, it sounds like a nightmare.

And welcome to DU!

[Better Days Ahoy]

13. Oh how ridiculous!

You'd think they worked for, oh, say, MassMutual during a years-long, expensive and ultimately failed technology project under poor leadership and inhumane conditions.

Oops, guess that was just me.

[plimsoll]

56. I think most IT folks have had that experience.

Musk is much more visibly being a dickhead about it.

[Better Days Ahoy]

61. Guess what? I wasn't in IT. I was in corporate training.

I was conscripted then held by my manager on this douche project. We travelled to regional centers to train suspicious staff on vaporware. We actually had to create fictional screens that weren't yet built, or were built but didn't work right.

The IT folks had it worse than we did, during and after the project. And those IT from India with work visas suddenly received a 30-day deadline to clear out. Others were let go almost immediately.

All because of poor contracting and smoke-and-mirrors management. Some of us on the ground saw this shitshow unfolding and knew it would fail.

Nice, MassMutual, nice.

[Maeve]

14. Take the severance pay or start taking medications--anxiety, heartburn, maybe anger management class

[Ray Bruns]

15. There is a great book called "Never Work For A Jerk".

It should be required reading for twitter employees

[SallyHemmings]

16. Now that you completed your first post

You have to go hardcore…….lol

[jerseyjim]

66. T***** and MAGA Extremists Suck

[GreenWave]

18. So he's back to the sweatshop era.

[IronLionZion]

20. Take the severance

Musk sounds like a real POS to work for.

[womanofthehills]

84. I read the average salary at Twitter is $150,000

The higher the pay, the less reluctant people are to leave.

[Best_man23]

22. As much as IT workforce is in demand across the country (and frankly, everywhere else)

I'd take the severance and start looking elsewhere.

[2naSalit]

23. I hope many of these...

Abused employees gang up and start a new platform that outshines the twit thing.

Welcome to DU!

[Javaman]

24. the question is, would he actually pay the severance? nt

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

25. "Hardcore"?

Has Musk decided that porn is the only way Twitter can make money? Was the sink he brought into the office on the first day part of his "The Plummer and the Lonely Housewife" set?

I wonder what labor laws apply to the staff at Twitter HQ and how Musk's ultimatum stacks against them.
I wish the employees good decision making and a sane working environment. I wish Musk everything he deserves.

[SouthernDem4ever]

78. I was wondering that too

he's competing with Pornhub? LOL

[yardwork]

90. Actually, I think he is planning to make porn the moneymaker for twitter.

Apparently the porn sellers on twitter are the ones most likely to pay for subscriptions.

[Lonestarblue]

27. Take the severance and run! This man is a nightmare.

Musk’s practices have been in the news lately about work conditions in his enormous factory in Austin. Workers are forced to work in dangerous conditions, and some are not being paid for overtime hours. The Guardian had an article yesterday, but several news sources have reported the story. Musk seems to flaunt his breaking labor laws just like Trump flaunts breaking laws. Either we need stronger labor laws, which I believe, r we need better legal enforcement.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/14/tesla-texas-construction-workers-gigafactory-lawsuit-labor-violations

[The Jungle 1]

45. The republicans defund the enforcement.

That is how they get around OHSA, labor laws, and environmental law.
In Pa Shapiro had to sue the EPA to get them to enforce environmental law.
"On a per worker basis, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom (UK) spend several times as much as on their government safety agencies as the United States." https://www.ehstoday.com/archive/article/21913695/is-osha-underfunded
Since 1989 the number of fatal injuries increased in the US.

[plimsoll]

60. It's not just defunding, it's selective.

Musk can get away with it because there are politicians who will intervene on his behalf. If someone wants to compete against Musk he'll try to get the same intervention but in reverse. It's the part I don't get about local chambers of commerce supporting the GOP, sure some regulation is difficult or even silly, but if everyone has to face the same regulatory regime there actually can be competition on an "level" field. Instead the government (under the GOP) picks winners and losers, and winners will always be the already well off. It's funny, because if you've actually read Adam Smith, this preferential treatment is what he was condemning as government interference. Oh well, just quote stuff out of context, the rubes will never check up.

[Lonestarblue]

64. Thanks for the link. Republicans are definitely anti-worker, especially when it comes to wages,

on-the-job safety, and unions. I haven’t had time to do the research, but I’ve long wondered about which party was in control when corporations started making changes that deny benefits to workers. I remember when the concept of independent contractors came about to avoid hiring people, which is legitimate in many instances but has been and still is abused by many companies. The company I worked for used a lot of independent contractors, some of whom worked full time solely for that company but received no benefits. Plus, there was the move to reclassify positions as exempt from overtime pay when the jobs were only nominally management positions, along with the effective wage theft of forcing salaried workers to take on the work of laid-off employees and thus saving companies millions of dollars.

And, of course, there are companies like Walmart that deliberately limit lower-paid workers to 30 hours of less to avoid paying benefits. It seems to me that if you’re an employee, you deserve benefits like the rest of the employees no matter how many hours you work. In the 1960s, over 70% of workers were covered by employer-provided healthcare plans. Today, that percentage is under 50%.

Who changed all the laws to allow workers to lose benefits, and when?

[SergeStorms]

29. Do the same rules apply to the "Chief Twit" too?

Too bad Twitter is owned solely by Musk. He would have been fired already.

This idiot is flushing $46 billion down the toilet.

[ananda]

31. Now they should all quit.

If they have any self-respect whatsoever.

[NoMoreRepugs]

32. Musk is a fool of intergalactic proportions.

[Tanuki]

34. Welcome to DU, jerseyjim! Thanks for this post. What a horrible person Musk is.

I'm glad the world can see how cruel, petty, self-aggrandizing, and thoroughly twisted he is. I wish his employees a soft landing and successful careers in a more humane workplace.

[Pobeka]

35. If they take severance, he doesn't have to pay unemployment for laying them off.

At least that's how it works in many states. 3 months of severance vs 6 months (?) of unemployment.

If my assumption is correct, this is traditional cut-throat forced attrition to save costs by not paying unemployment.

[IbogaProject]

58. Unemployment has a maximum

12 or 13 weeks at full tech pay is likely higher than 26 weeks of that max.

[Pobeka]

59. Ok. Thanks. Bad assumption on my part.

[PatSeg]

36. Happy First Post Ever!

Excellent choice.

It really feels like Musk is determined to fail. I wonder what kind of daddy issues he has.

[niyad]

37. Welcome. And a great first OP. I am with you. Tyrant bosses can go to hell.

[JT45242]

38. Family money comes from practically slaving the emerald mines ... so be aware of what he means

His start up cash ofr paypal and the other schemes he has run was the bloody money of apartheid mines in South Africa. So wehn he expects workers to go hard core, understand what that means to the Musk family.

They should all quit. They should all wipe their computers of in progress work as they go out.

[The Jungle 1]

40. I always enjoyed quitting.

You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free Paul Simon

Foul Musk needs YOU more than you need him. He wants you to commit your life to him and his investment. How about NO.

[BadgerMom]

42. Welcome, jerseyjim!

You and I are on the same page on this.

[duhneece]

43. Musk should be Trump's campaign manager nt

[cactusdave]

46. What a Pig!

Another tough guy billionaire, huh?

The beatings will continue until the complaining stops. You're a fascist pig Musk! You don't deserve the kind of loyalty you demand from others. Who does that remind us of?

[3825-87867]

47. From the Bush II days, buy apropos, Elon

[Joinfortmill]

48. Take the severance or better yet join Anonymous.

[CaptainTruth]

52. Quit the Twit

New Twitter employee slogan

[Grokenstein]

53. So anyone with the skills to find another (better) job will run like hell...

...and the rest will have no choice but to stay in this high-stress atmosphere lorded over by a twitchy moron.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Farmer-Rick]

54. He bought it to make the libs pay

He's so much like Trump it's uncanny. Revenge, hate and arrogance are his only motivator. He has no compassion, empathy or kindness. He feels only hate. He targets others to abuse because it makes him feel good. There is nothing intrinsic about his targets that makes them his target. They just happened to be there.

He's going to try and use and abuse everyone and everything on Twitter. He's not in it for the money, though he would like to make money off it but that is not his main goal. He wants to influence the 2024 elections and help out Trump. He's not doing it to destroy Twitter, though that will be the end result. He's doing it to get his voice screaming louder than anyone else's.

Whoever remains at Twitter, either as customers or employees, will be used and abused. It's is just his nature. He's a spoiled rotten psychopath, who was given tons of free money and he thinks he is the world.

He recognizes Trump as one like himself.and will be helping him win in 2024.

[nattyice]

57. Tesla and Space-X aren't much better. That's why it's called "Slave-X"

[Texin]

62. WTF exactly does "hardcore" Twitter even mean.

I'm with you JerseyJim. I'd quit (especially if it had a severance option). I don't suffer fools lightly and I find sweat shop tyrants even more intolerable.

[Locrian]

80. "hardcore" - twitter porn ?! - n/t

[JudyM]

65. Great first OP!

[dchill]

67. Welcome to DU, jerseyjim!

Great post! No one should be willing to nose the grindstone for a creepy billionaire. If they do, they're just going to lose face.

[azureblue]

70. LOL

and when everyone quits with a hearty FU, he will have nothing but an empty shell where Twitter used to be. Smart move there, fella.

[zipplewrath]

72. 4 choices

1) Quit. Take the severance. First one out the door has the best chance of finding that next job.

2) Ignore it. Worst they do is fire you and then you can look for the next job.

3) Stick around for a month, see if they stick to their threats. It takes effort to continually enforce these attitudes and that effort comes from the frontline managers, not CEO's

4) Fight it. Believe it or not, almost any group of employees can unionize. Do collective bargaining to fight back.

Personally I'd suggest #1 in this case. Really, no matter which of the other 3 you choose, you're going to be in a very toxic work environment for a long time. The threats and rules may change regularly, but it is obvious this type of incentive and management is going to be sustained over the long haul.

[Kennah]

73. Sounds like porn

[dembotoz]

77. i have seen this in retail and fast food. promote someone from hourly to salary give them a title

and double the hours.
because they are salary there is no overtime so "dedication" to the company is ensured.

divide the hours worked by the dedicated employee into the salary and often the kid at the register makes more per hour.

[Martin68]

79. Does anyone know what they'd be committing to? What's the definition of harcore Twitter?

[cactusdave]

86. I'd imagine that it's anything Musk wants it to mean

Musk says jump and the response better be how high?

[Martin68]

91. Sounds like hardcore Musk.

[Locrian]

81. this could get interesting....

By mid-Wednesday, members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety team — who are responsible for keeping hate speech and misinformation off the site — were discussing a mass resignation, according to three current employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

which will bring more of this:

Meanwhile, advertisers have been pausing spending on the site, hurting Twitter’s main source of revenue. Companies including General Motors, Volkswagen and General Mills said they were pausing advertising after Musk took over — with some brands acting in conjunction with calls from civil rights groups to do so.

Not that I like the idea of people losing their jobs.... but hopefully musk eats it.

[purr-rat beauty]

82. Removing Twitter from the social media sphere will give rise

to right wing platforms like parler, gab, and truth social

to gain control of the narrative, popularity, static, and buzz around trumpster fire.

feels a little coincidental to me

[womanofthehills]

85. Twice as many Democrats post on Twitter than Republicans

More college educated than not college educated. Many Dems think Twitter is good.

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=QekAbcw2pcXRSSoRik3eXw

[treestar]

87. maybe this is part of his campaign to wreck it

seems like he bought it for that purpose. Why, who can say.

[PlanetBev]

88. Welcome to DU, Jerseyjim!

This place has kept me sane for 20 years.

When I was younger, I suffered fools like Musk because I needed the job. I hope these workers at Twitter are all able to bail on this creep.

[The Third Doctor]

89. The repugs love this guy. Just as long as their jobs are secure t hey

Don't give a damn. This is happening right before the holidays too.

[Martin68]

92. "Commit to Twitter hardcore" means "do whatever I tell you to do, without question, or

ber fired." The man is an supremely entitled autocratic robot.

[XorXor]

94. What's in it for them?

I totally understand that mindset of founders or early ground floorers who stand to benefit greatly from a a relatively short period of extremely hard work with long hours, but wtf does some engineer making normal wages get out of that? It's not as if they are working toward some ultimate goal with a huge payoff, and that has a point in which there is relief at the end.

All he is going to do is burn people out

[Aussie105]

95. Musk says:

Anyone who does not sleep at work overnight or doesn't die of overwork in the next week will be fired for not being a Team Player.

Perhaps some muscle flexing is needed?

Everyone out, turn off the computers, throw the Big Switch on Twitter, last to leave turns out the lights.

[Woodwizard]

96. Musk has reached his peak on the Peter principal.

All the good creative workers will be out the door, anyone with any self respect that does not have to stay for dire financial reasons.

[Politicub]

97. Trickle-down toxicity

The tone for leadership is set at the top, and Musk is fostering a hellscape of a workplace.

I would need to leave to protect my health. I started what I thought was a great job. What I didn’t realize was that I was working for a toxic manager. It destroyed my self-esteem and took me a long time to recover from the gaslighting and abuse.

I was afraid to leave because it wasn’t a great job market, and my spirit was crushed. Many people don’t understand what it is like to work for someone who belittles and then increases bullying once someone is broken down.

It was a tough lesson to learn, and I told myself I would never stay somewhere like that again. I know the signs now.

Fuck Elon Musk and every narcissist like him.

[TexasBushwhacker]

99. Well, that's a great way to lose his best employees n/t