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Celia M Paddock's avatar

It's interesting that the Media is screaming their heads off about the Twitter layoffs, while remaining silent about the Facebook layoffs. We really have reached a point where Leftists openly call witch-hunts on anyone they think is too far to the right (which, in practical terms, is anyone not to the left of Stalin).

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Lee Morris's avatar

Not sure, Celia. I've been reading about both firms for days..

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T Reid's avatar

They also weren't mad about cops, firefighters, soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, etc getting fired for declining the vaccine which doesn't provide immunization but which Everyone Must Have Forever.

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SUZ's avatar

11,000 people laid off!!! Yet it is musk who is so cruel. I just do not get it

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Brian Katz's avatar

ЁЯО╗ЁЯО╗ЁЯО╗ЁЯО╗ЁЯО╗

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MC's avatar

Meta has 10x the number of employees. It's a simple Google search. Both of these companies have serious problems and hired too many people. Twitter was a crappy business having lost over $200 million last FY. Meta's getting destroyed by Tik Tok. There's nothing wrong with layoffs, we live in a capitalist society. Many great businesses start during recessions. These aren't political decisions, they are economic.

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Scott D's avatar

I had friend working at Google who essentially said they had nothing to do but were afraid to tell their managers because then they'd risk losing their job. This kind of management always leads to failure. As a manager myself, when a good employee tells me they have bandwidth I give them a new project to work on and don't even CONSIDER laying them off.

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MC's avatar

Speaking from Sili ValleyтАж the Meta layoffs were handled more humbly by Zuck. I'm not a fan of his, but he was very gracious and accepted responsibility in his communications to his staff. Musk has come into Twitter like a raiding pirate and is firing people simply because of his screw ups. I like hard work, but telling employees that their life is now 24/7 at the office is just slavery.

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Scott D's avatar

The best way to lay people off, especially good employees, is to have their managers tell them 1:1. Explain why, explain the severance packages, and offer to be a reference. I would NEVER lay someone off in an email or text, or tell them "wait to see whether you get a personal or company email to see if you still have a job."

Twitter had too many employees but the way Musk did the layoffs is going to hurt him because those remaining will be fearful and management by fear only works for so long, and causes a lack of loyalty and a desire to "get even." Just ask anyone who worked for Trump.f

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Rick Trencher's avatar

Jeez MC: you sound a bit like a conspiracy theorist. YouтАЩre saying Musk is asking people to work 24/7. I think they just have to come into the office and not in their bathrobes and slippers, right? Firing people because of his screw ups? I think heтАЩs firing some of them . . . because they are screw ups. HeтАЩs laying people off because theyтАЩve been running an untenable business plan. HeтАЩs laying people off because of the efforts of others to defeat his plan and because . . . as a former business leader it appears their staffing is morbidly obese (otherwise, why had they been bleeding for some time). I mean . . . hey it's your right to dislike Elon. But, you do realize, that what you wrote above is misinformation, right?

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AlabamaSlamma's avatar

Lol, this made me think of the Dilbert cartoon about casual Fridays.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Do you suppose the initial reaction by Twitter employees to Musk's interest in buying Twitter had anything to do with that? They were after all merely employees of a floundering corporation and they were very demanding.

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Steven N.'s avatar

24/7 at the office???? Only for a small group of people on a specific deadline. This is not uncommon at any company and in this case itтАЩs a chance to separate the chaff from the wheat.

My guess is 90% of the staff at Twitter are among the following:

1) Silver night shade

2) Russian Thistle

3) Bind weed

4) Corn Buttercup

5) Catchweed bedstraw

The lie is deep in your soul.

Telling people work from home is over and no more тАЬmental health daysтАЭ is not slavery and it belittles the 100тАЩs of millions of past slaves as well as the millions of people CURRENTLY enslaved around the globe (mostly Africa).

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J. Matthews's avatar

Slavery? Like LeBron James slavery or Uyghurs in factories?

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MC's avatar

Why don't you go work 120 hours a week and tell us how much you love it.

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Sandy's avatar

I did it for 5 years as a general surgery intern, then an Orthopaedic resident, while being paid less than $35k per year. It sucked but was part of the deal we all made to be surgeons. If you canтАЩt do it, donтАЩt do it. Choice.

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Rick Trencher's avatar

Nah. You go first.

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Steven N.'s avatar

I have. It sucked but it was just for a few weeks.

In this case, it was a small team for 5 days.

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J. Matthews's avatar

Who is working 120 hours a week besides actual slaves? In the U.S. you can quit and go work somewhere else.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Aa a classical liberal, I must admit your assessment is now sadly true. Radicals on the left are doing nobody any favors.

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AlabamaSlamma's avatar

Glad to hear you say this. There's nothing liberal about leftism.

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Kathleen Sykes's avatar

Just one-half step right of Chairman Mao.

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j p m's avatar

If he wants to generate some real money from his shaky investment, he should raise the monthly fee on the Twit elites with 1 million plus "followers" from $ 8 per month to $50-100 per month. Most will stay, they luv the attention and adoration.

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Scott D's avatar

Or charge $1 a month per account. That will cut down on bots and those who really want Twitter will pay $1.

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Skeptical but Optimistic's avatar

Or take a cut from all the influencers that use it for their careers. #payup

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Shri Shahapurkar's avatar

The layoffs are different, meta layoffs is cost cutting, Twitter layoffs is a musk pissing match kicking to the curb anyone who doesn't agree with him.

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Rick Trencher's avatar

You sound kind of angry. And, unfortunately, your statements are unsupported and, well, kind of stupid. But, I 100% support your right to share your thoughts and feelings whether or not you should be embarrassed.

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J. Matthews's avatar

Please learn to comment without resorting to ad hominem attacks against other commenters. Politicians are fair game.

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J. Matthews's avatar

Nope. It was clear that there were too many at Twitter not working full time but getting paid full time. Staff is a business's biggest expense, and if you can get rid of dead wood, you do.

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Shri Shahapurkar's avatar

How was it clear?

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Nov 11, 2022
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Rick Trencher's avatar

Ha ha ha ha. Oh Jen - you are entertaining (IтАЩm throwing my gray hair back - but not so cool as you). Back to my point. Latinos are certainly just a smart as everyone else - and on the whole - I find them to be rather nice, fun and hospitable people as well. Refreshing! You talking about disinformation? Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

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J. Matthews's avatar

This week Biden insisted that HBCUs are " just as smart, youтАЩre just as bright, youтАЩre just as good as any college in America" Who is he arguing against besides the Jim Eagle racist in his brain?

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Sandy's avatar

Remember, he was a huge admirer of Senator (Grand Wizard) Byrd of WV. He is, at least, consistent.

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Nov 11, 2022
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Scott D's avatar

I don't think it's particularly "woke" to not want to advertise on a platform where people yell "n****r" just for fun. I wouldn't shop at a store if the owner was this blatantly racist and don't consider that "woke" either--just common decency.

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Sandy's avatar

IтАЩm grateful to the advertisers who left. They let me know I should avoid their companies.

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Brian Katz's avatar

Musk has a plan and he will execute it.

He will make a ton of money in the process and make Twitter a better widget.

Firing the old Twitter management team and Board was the first step and was expected.

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Lee Morris's avatar

Never a dull moment with Elon!

I'm afraid the medicine might kill the patient..

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Charles Gonzalez's avatar

I love Elon- he is Americas visionary entrepreneur - watching that rocket descend and land in its end was mind blowing - and while I would never ever buy an electric car I respect him for rolling the dice when most wouldnтАЩt have. And, Twitter was never a scalable business like the other techs and was just a vehicle for Americans to blow steam. There isnтАЩt a way it deserves the valuation that he paid for it and sooner or later he and his bankers will realize that. HeтАЩs made the same mistake as so many other billionaires, investing outside of their vision and going for their ego gratification.

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Celia M Paddock's avatar

Very true. The major problem at Twitter--from what I've read--is that there were too many managers and too few people actually working. Which is pretty much what I would expect of a Woke company where people want to give their friends cushy jobs that let them do "social justice" all day. As long as Musk manages to hire people who aren't Wokies and who can code, I think he can pull the company up by its bootstraps.

The only thing that seriously worries me is Biden's threat to shut Twitter down as "a threat to national security." In a rational nation, that would be a non-starter. But we no longer live in a rational nation.

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Scott D's avatar

We're finally starting to see some good coders and developers come work in the education space. For years, government, healthcare, and education have had a hard time attracting I.T. talent because 1. we can't offer the pay and perks of the big tech companies and 2. the work isn't as glamorous and exciting. 3. There is A LOT of work (though still decent work-life balance).

Securing personal data from hackers isn't as much fun as developing a new way to show teenagers doing stupid things. If ANY group needs good tech people, it's healthcare. Smaller hospital "I.T." often consists of one guy who sort of knows computers--and they deal with some very sensitive info.

Friends who worked at Google would occasionally complain about 12 hour days, but it sounded like six of those hours were going to the company gym, eating company food, and other non-work things.

Maybe, just maybe, people are coming to their senses and we'll see I.T. talent being put to good use where it's really needed.

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Joe Horton's avatar

Worry not about that. We still have a 6-3 SCOTUS and a Bill of Rights. Shutting down something like Twitter would rise to at least the level of strict scrutiny and have to go through appeals rapidly. Not gonna happen.

What ~might~ happen is Twitter going bankrupt, per ElonтАЩs predicted possibility, but that seems pretty unlikely.

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MEbner's avatar

We have a 6-3 majority at present but if the Senate goes the way it appears to be going itтАЩs depressingly possible that the Dems pack the court next term. The fact that eliminating the filibuster and embracing court packing is being discussed as a legitimate tactic is just insane.

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Brian Katz's avatar

In a normal world, someone in the media would have called out Biden for making that comment.

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Bill Cribben's avatar

In a normal world Joe Biden would reside at the Shady Acres Adult Care Center.

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JoAnne's avatar

TikTok collects data from its user for the Chinese government, but with great wit & wisdom Biden recognizes that Twitter is the threat?!

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Skeptical but Optimistic's avatar

And no one in the press said anything.

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j p m's avatar

He has a 44 billion CASH loan he has to pay off. He will lose billions on that thing. He should have stuck to inventions and science instead of wasting time on tweets.

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Rick Trencher's avatar

In your opinion and based on your unsupported feelings. However, your opinion that maybe he should have stuck to other lines of business . . . who knows? By chance you might be right!

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Brian Katz's avatar

I donтАЩt know what the capital structure is but the entire deal is not debt. Some of the private equity investors got back equity.

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Nov 11, 2022
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Lynne Morris's avatar

I read months back that he really wanted it for communications for

SpaceX craft and Mars travel. That Twitter was more or less ideal for the purpose and already built.

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Brian Katz's avatar

Excellent assessment.

Musk is moving at light speed and that makes heads spin.

Good !

I hope they fall off.

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Nov 11, 2022
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Sandy's avatar

Any small business owner knows that nap pods, rest days ad lib, and allowing employees to pursue their own business on company time leads to the death of the business. Techies are just figuring this out? For a bunch of smart people, they are pretty dumb.

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Scott D's avatar

The idea behind a lot of these perks is to keep them working longer hours. Provide everything they need at the office so they stay there and don't go home. Why lose a half day of work going to the dentist when the on-site dentist can see you in half an hour. Why leave at a decent hour to go make dinner when it's provided for you.

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Brian Katz's avatar

I agree on the # employees as surprising too.

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Skeptical but Optimistic's avatar

I have never worked anywhere or been friends with anyone that worked anywhere that you were allowed to spend 80% of your paid time on pet causes of your own. That is probably the part that confuses me the most. I hope this is an example to EVERY corporation to start saying do this crap on your own time not ours.

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Brian Katz's avatar

80% is a big number I agree.

Companies are giving employees more time now than 10 years ago to give back to the community - where there is accountability.

And many companies have programs for their employees to participate in giving back.

Always with profitability in mind.

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Donna Partow's avatar

"anyone not to the left of Stalin" - that's almost Nellie-level pithy

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Nellie is not pithy. SheтАЩs absurd.

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BradK (Afuera!)'s avatar

She can be both, though today she was certainly the latter.

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Bruce Miller's avatar

Their ridiculousness apparently knows no bounds.

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Nov 23, 2022
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SUZ's avatar

Right!?!? They just love talking about themselves

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Nov 11, 2022
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Rose L's avatar

A La Keystone XL layoffs

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Shirley G's avatar

RightтАж like vaccine mandatesтАж

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Andrea's avatar

Ha! Yup. Precisely.

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JJoshua's avatar

Yes, because the left ==== HYPOCRISY

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