Would you work at Twitter now?
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It sounds to me like he's demanding 80 hour weeks by producing ultimatums like "deliver this by the drop dead date or you're all fired" An employer that thinks he could treat me like that would quickly find himself hitting the bricks looking for another senior dev or architect. But then, I don't really have to look for work. It finds me. I'm surprised anyone here would prefer working conditions like that.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Serious question, without trying to be too political. This isn't really about politics, but workplace quality. I'm just asking you, as a developer, would you put up with working in that atmosphere? By all appearances, from the little I've seen, I'd have been out the door before the ink was dry on Elon's buyout. Not because of who he is or what he believes, but because of how he runs things. My guess is his top talent has already fled.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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A few days ago,I made this image / meme[^] for questions just like yours. Why do people think twitter is _suddenly_ so terrible? Have you liked it all along?
Oh I agree it has always been garbage. But prior, I didn't hear Dorsey spewing things to his teams like "deliver this project on my timeline or you're all fired" Now I'm hearing trash like that. So maybe before, had I been in a position where I'd have considered employment at Twitter (enough to find more about their workplace environment) now I have enough evidence (for me) that it's someplace I wouldn't want to work, and similarly, if I had worked there in the past, I certainly wouldn't put up with what I'm seeing of the current direction. And basing this on public twits made by Elon himself.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I live in the midwest US and over the many years of my career I've experienced a lot of the challenges of working in IT which have always been related to people having too much power & no accountability. I've only seen short periods of time at any company where the environment is anything nice. When it gets real ugly, then you go to the next company. That part of the career has not been fun.
In the 1920s our forefathers were shot with canister shots under order from the King beacause they were unionizing and striking. In the 1970s their descendants taught bosses to respect the workers with the help of machineguns, rifles and molotovs. Now the situation is turning a bit for the worst thanks to imported 'work ethics' from abroad but we still have good workers laws.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I'm just not hearing about that level of demands. I'm hearing pampered "little darlings" that are complaining that they are being held accountable for the very first time in their lives.
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In the 1920s our forefathers were shot with canister shots under order from the King beacause they were unionizing and striking. In the 1970s their descendants taught bosses to respect the workers with the help of machineguns, rifles and molotovs. Now the situation is turning a bit for the worst thanks to imported 'work ethics' from abroad but we still have good workers laws.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Serious question, without trying to be too political. This isn't really about politics, but workplace quality. I'm just asking you, as a developer, would you put up with working in that atmosphere? By all appearances, from the little I've seen, I'd have been out the door before the ink was dry on Elon's buyout. Not because of who he is or what he believes, but because of how he runs things. My guess is his top talent has already fled.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I'd've been headed for the door the day Elon started the purchase process. Hellish nothing but work from the time you crawl out of bed until you collapse back into it conditions have been a hallmark of engineering culture at every company he runs.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius
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Not sure where you get your news from, but here's one place discussing some of what CodeWitch is talking about.
Since we're sharing links... Twitter 'day in a life' video indicates lots of downtime, very little actual work - TheBlaze[^]. There are others. Maybe... just maybe... if Twitter employees had a decent work ethic to start with the codebase would be in a state where Musk's demands could be met with little OT.
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Oh I agree it has always been garbage. But prior, I didn't hear Dorsey spewing things to his teams like "deliver this project on my timeline or you're all fired" Now I'm hearing trash like that. So maybe before, had I been in a position where I'd have considered employment at Twitter (enough to find more about their workplace environment) now I have enough evidence (for me) that it's someplace I wouldn't want to work, and similarly, if I had worked there in the past, I certainly wouldn't put up with what I'm seeing of the current direction. And basing this on public twits made by Elon himself.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I got a good laugh out of AOC's tweet about 'free speech' being $8/month to twit-head. Hopefully the excess debt he incurred to buy it takes it under. Sorry to any good talent he has, but like you say, hopefully they have found better options. And I hope even the not-so-good talent easily finds other work.
Our Forgotten Astronomy | Object Oriented Programming with C++ | Wordle solver
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Serious question, without trying to be too political. This isn't really about politics, but workplace quality. I'm just asking you, as a developer, would you put up with working in that atmosphere? By all appearances, from the little I've seen, I'd have been out the door before the ink was dry on Elon's buyout. Not because of who he is or what he believes, but because of how he runs things. My guess is his top talent has already fled.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I would not have been working at Twitter to begin with. The addition of Elon just makes a quick exit even more of a priority. I will not touch anything he produces or otherwise gets his hands on.
Asking questions is a skill CodeProject Forum Guidelines Google: C# How to debug code Seriously, go read these articles.
Dave Kreskowiak -
Since we're sharing links... Twitter 'day in a life' video indicates lots of downtime, very little actual work - TheBlaze[^]. There are others. Maybe... just maybe... if Twitter employees had a decent work ethic to start with the codebase would be in a state where Musk's demands could be met with little OT.
Regardless of the culture that was there prior, even if one video could tell the whole story (In my experience large companies vary widely in culture from department to department), it does not excuse poor management. Look, I made a nice living doing consulting in a "project rescue" capacity, putting multimillion dollar implementations back on track. You don't do that by issuing ultimatums and crazy deadlines and generally creating a toxic work environment. All Elon has done is chased out anyone that may have had the skills he needs right now. And people don't work well at gunpoint. All he's doing is taking a situation he already didn't like the look of, and throwing gasoline and matches at it.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I got a good laugh out of AOC's tweet about 'free speech' being $8/month to twit-head. Hopefully the excess debt he incurred to buy it takes it under. Sorry to any good talent he has, but like you say, hopefully they have found better options. And I hope even the not-so-good talent easily finds other work.
Our Forgotten Astronomy | Object Oriented Programming with C++ | Wordle solver
I honestly want to see the big social media platforms fail, and keep failing until we as a global community pull our heads out of our collective elephant to the degree that we can handle. "A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on" - the old saw has only been shown terribly true with the addition of the Internet. And it's not about a failure of critical thinking. The problem is larger than that. Modern propaganda isn't singularly about misinforming anymore. It's about flooding the zone, and exhausting your ability to reason with too much information. Kind of like tobacco companies used to produce damning evidence against them buried under virtual mountains of other discovery, so that no human beings could sift through it in any reasonable time. We are not ready for mass many to many communication.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Regardless of the culture that was there prior, even if one video could tell the whole story (In my experience large companies vary widely in culture from department to department), it does not excuse poor management. Look, I made a nice living doing consulting in a "project rescue" capacity, putting multimillion dollar implementations back on track. You don't do that by issuing ultimatums and crazy deadlines and generally creating a toxic work environment. All Elon has done is chased out anyone that may have had the skills he needs right now. And people don't work well at gunpoint. All he's doing is taking a situation he already didn't like the look of, and throwing gasoline and matches at it.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I don't base my opinion about Twitter culture from one video. I've been watching the cultures (from afar) at Twitter, FB, Google, Apple, etc... for many years. Even back when Musk was a mere millionaire... ;) Poor management has been alive and well at Twitter from its start. Dorsey is a clown. Always has been. His pitiful management created the mess that Musk is trying to clean-up. I have no idea if Musk's fire and brimstone methods will work or not but "more of the same" never fixes the problem. Ever. I predict we're going to see similar (albeit less public) issues at FB and Google in the coming months and years. Hell, we're already seeing them if you look closely. Spoiled employees who think they can work from home forever, whine constantly on company message boards, be less productive and still demand top tier money. As for working well "at gunpoint"... some people can and do in small-ish doses. Most of us who've been in the game for more than a few years have "pulled a rabbit from the hat" on occasion when the pressure is on. Maybe Musk is merely trying to find his magicians?
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I don't base my opinion about Twitter culture from one video. I've been watching the cultures (from afar) at Twitter, FB, Google, Apple, etc... for many years. Even back when Musk was a mere millionaire... ;) Poor management has been alive and well at Twitter from its start. Dorsey is a clown. Always has been. His pitiful management created the mess that Musk is trying to clean-up. I have no idea if Musk's fire and brimstone methods will work or not but "more of the same" never fixes the problem. Ever. I predict we're going to see similar (albeit less public) issues at FB and Google in the coming months and years. Hell, we're already seeing them if you look closely. Spoiled employees who think they can work from home forever, whine constantly on company message boards, be less productive and still demand top tier money. As for working well "at gunpoint"... some people can and do in small-ish doses. Most of us who've been in the game for more than a few years have "pulled a rabbit from the hat" on occasion when the pressure is on. Maybe Musk is merely trying to find his magicians?
I can already tell you they won't work, because it's the first thing bad managers try when things aren't going their way. Elon's approach has been done to death. It's an anti-pattern. He'd save himself a ton of financial pain if he just read the book "Fish". It's brief. It might save him billions. Seeing as how his personal wealth has been hemorrhaging since he took over twitter, he could probably stand to save a few bucks.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
-
Serious question, without trying to be too political. This isn't really about politics, but workplace quality. I'm just asking you, as a developer, would you put up with working in that atmosphere? By all appearances, from the little I've seen, I'd have been out the door before the ink was dry on Elon's buyout. Not because of who he is or what he believes, but because of how he runs things. My guess is his top talent has already fled.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Yup. If they would hire me.
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I can already tell you they won't work, because it's the first thing bad managers try when things aren't going their way. Elon's approach has been done to death. It's an anti-pattern. He'd save himself a ton of financial pain if he just read the book "Fish". It's brief. It might save him billions. Seeing as how his personal wealth has been hemorrhaging since he took over twitter, he could probably stand to save a few bucks.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
-
I honestly want to see the big social media platforms fail, and keep failing until we as a global community pull our heads out of our collective elephant to the degree that we can handle. "A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on" - the old saw has only been shown terribly true with the addition of the Internet. And it's not about a failure of critical thinking. The problem is larger than that. Modern propaganda isn't singularly about misinforming anymore. It's about flooding the zone, and exhausting your ability to reason with too much information. Kind of like tobacco companies used to produce damning evidence against them buried under virtual mountains of other discovery, so that no human beings could sift through it in any reasonable time. We are not ready for mass many to many communication.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I think if Twitter maintains its dominance as a social media platform, and Elon remains in charge of that, then I'd be fine with conceding he pulled a rabbit out of a hat, given his approach. But it's still not an approach I'd ever adopt, because the odds are against it paying off.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Yup. If they would hire me.
Twitter Managers Told Staff to Work 12-Hour Shifts, 7 Days a Week: CNBC[^] This kind of thing plus the "deliver on my due date or you're all fired" ultimatums wouldn't put you off?
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I can already tell you they won't work, because it's the first thing bad managers try when things aren't going their way. Elon's approach has been done to death. It's an anti-pattern. He'd save himself a ton of financial pain if he just read the book "Fish". It's brief. It might save him billions. Seeing as how his personal wealth has been hemorrhaging since he took over twitter, he could probably stand to save a few bucks.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I expect it to crash and burn at Twitter too, recovery might happen but not without a hell year and massive staff turnover first. And even then I'm doubtful due to the likely loss of institutional memory of how the codebase works. Elon's managed to make it work at Telsa and SpaceX because they were open about expectations when hiring and there is a small subset of the population idealistic enough to work themselves to death for an opportunity to change the world. Most people won't put up with being :elephant:ed that way; especially when the new slave driver is promising massive layoffs anyway. And when a company is hemoraging staff at all levels, finding ex/coworkers to give you references isn't a problem.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius
