Elon Musk bans Twitter employees from working remotely

[PSPS]

Elon Musk bans Twitter employees from working remotely
Daniel Cooper
November 10, 2022 7:35 AM

Elon Musk has banned Twitter employees from working remotely, saying they need to spend 40 hours a week in the office unless he gives his express permission otherwise. Bloomberg reported from the company’s first official all-hands communications from Musk since bought the platform. He said workers need to prepare for “difficult times ahead” for advertising-led business like Twitter, and that he wants to see subscription fees, account for half the company’s revenue.

Twitter fostered a remote work culture during the pandemic, allowing many employees to work from home. It also instituted regular additional rest days for employees, another initiative Musk has axed, saying that Twitter’s turnaround will require “intense work.” Musk ’s other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, also require mandatory in-office work unless management specifically approves it. When he wrote to both sets of workers, he said that visibility was key for senior leadership, who should be seen to be working alongside their subordinates.

Musk added in his remarks that the company’s first priority — after completing the rollout of Twitter Blue — is to address his concern around automated accounts. A key pillar of Musk and the company’s fight, prior to acquisition, was the billionaire’s belief that the company was under reporting the amount of fake accounts running on its platform. 

No more at link.
https://www.engadget.com/musk-ends-remote-work-at-twitter-123547728.html

[Claustrum]

1. Honestly, this is one of the most surprising thing for me after COVID.

I thought most companies would demand people to show up at work again. I expected companies to do what Musk is doing here.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Companies have no power right now

They can demand whatever they want, most tech companies are understaffed and in competition with other tech companies to acquire and retain talent.

My company has softened their stance on WFH significantly. It's the only way we can compete for the top talent we need to be profitable.

I am sure Twitter has a ton of talented technical workers who have many other companies vying for their services. No WFH will be a deal breaker to a lot of them.

The BS Musk is asking of Twitter workers right now is hilarious because he has no buy in. To get a team to go above and beyond and break their backs takes a common purpose and a mission that people are bought into. Musk probably inspired Tesla engineers when he was building it up, so they really worked hard to help build their shared dream. But Musk is nothing more than a corporate raider at Twitter, everyone who can walk away is going to. What's in it for his workers? Is he promising them part ownership? Huge bonuses?

It honestly seems like he took over Twitter to simply destroy it. It won't last 6 months at this rate.

[Sympthsical]

12. It actually costs my company less to leave us at home.

Although it was made very clear to us that if things weren't getting done, or if there were any chronic problems (people being unavailable during working hours, missed meetings, not showing up in person when required) they'd rethink things.

So everyone's pretty much on best behavior about it with my work.

That isn't universal. Some places can feel productivity slacken with WFH types. I have friends who thought working for home was practically vacation. It's not, and management does eventually notice. (Some of my nephews' teachers also took this tack during Covid, and it still pisses me off how little they thought they had to do).

Funnily enough, I was in the kitchen yesterday while my partner had one of his meetings on speaker. One of the directors was just railing at people. Absolutely letting them have it, because location/site work had slackened. My partner was WFH before Covid, and it's the nature of his job (he has to bounce around to different sites sometimes, and home is best HQ for him). But some others were allowed to WFH, and the competence and efficiency suffered. It feels like every day I hear a, "Why did this not get done?" float in from one of his calls. He said sometimes it feels like he's chasing some of his employees.

WFH works if people make it work. But if it isn't working and people need supervision to do their jobs, welp, back to the office they'll go. Which is happening with some of my partner's employees, and I've heard similar from friends at other tech jobs as well. Stuff wasn't getting done, because people were fucking around.

I have no idea what the case is at Twitter.

[kysrsoze]

25. This is just attempt to cut more jobs - he did it at Tesla. But how many employees can you lose?

This is an attempt to get employees to leave by attrition, so he doesn't look bad. But what's he going to do, have no labor cost and make Tesla people do all the work? BTW - he has made some of them work on Twitter, with bad results so far.

This idiot is running the platform into the ground, and I couldn't be happier about it.

[gratuitous]

33. That was my feeling

Laying people off wholesale isn't a good strategy, and with the complications of violating the WARN Act, cutting payroll in that manner doesn't save any money and costs more to compensate those employees who aren't doing work for you anymore.

But start putting on demands that some people are bound to find intolerable? They lay themselves off. The downside of this is that Musk doesn't know or control who's going to walk out the door. Irving Underling might stay (who cares), but Peter Powerhouse leaving can be a real blow to his section and to office morale. Employees are a little more complicated and far less interchangeable than the little army tokens in a game of Risk.

[CentralMass]

28. I suspect that many of us disagree with you. I will of course do what my employer wants me to do,

However ee had already been long working with a model where were our laptops became our "phones" using a USB or Bluetooth headset. Pre pandemic were were still going into conference rooms for meeting but frankly it was a pain in the ass. Conference rooms were often booked and difficult to find. Although we sat together as a group we often had to go to a conference room to discuss work with a coworker(s) because nearby employees in other groups would complain about the noise. Same thing If we were on calls. We would often have to leave our desks and look for a individual "phone booth" to take the call.
With the sharing technology that we have working remotely for those who don't need to be physically at work is very efficient. Need to ask some one a question there is a chat app. Need to turn it into a call ? One click and you can start a call where you can share desktops, files etc. You can record meeting, training sessions etc. Meetings are all held in that environment. We avoid the work commute and save on gasoline usage/pollution by not having to drive to work. We are more productive working remotely and it is a better more efficient way of working.

[Claustrum]

29. I don't know if you got the wrong impression from me.

I think workers would definitely like working from home. It's the company and managers who don't like that. Maybe I was unlucky throughout my career but a lot of my managers like to micromanage and they don't have a lot of trust in employees willingness to finish their work on their own. That's where my skepticism came from before COVID.

I think what happened was that actually having workers WFH showed those upper management that worker production didn't drop so they are more willing to leave the WFH policies in place.

[CentralMass]

30. I agree with thst completely.

[exboyfil]

2. Is he sure that Twitter offers enough value for all those proposed changes?

Also employee retention is a thing. I know he likes churn, but is he sure there are enough institutional safeguards in place to prevent catastrophic failure.

Leave Musk with an empty husk.

[Oneironaut]

3. What a dickhead.

Twitter was actually fine as it was. Then, Mr. “It isn’t good for me! I will fix it with my brilliance!” touches it with his reverse-Meidas touch and turns a successful company into a giant, steaming cow pie.

It’s a tragedy.

[Hortensis]

13. Twitter's never been an adequately profitable business.

Musk could have invested his $44B many other places and made standard profits, instead of in a company that loses money every year for those who've tied their money up in it.

Not a problem for over 400 million users who get it for free -- as long as it lasts.

[Hav]

14. It's like an ego-driven trainwreck

He was like the drunk at a bar yelling about how he'd change everything at his company if he were at charge.
Musk actually is in that position by overspending and now he thinks he has to look for things to change anything to be useful as the new boss.

Showing presence has to be one of the dumbest things CEOs value.

[CrispyQ]

4. IMO, telecommuting never took off cuz managers want workers at the office to control them.

In my decades long career, I've had three excellent managers. The rest were varying degrees of mediocre & a few were downright awful. Management is one of those occupations that attracts the very types of personalities that don't make good managers. It's a control issue for a lot of managers.

[dembotoz]

15. I work in telecom and tech

you would not believe the control management has thru software and phone systems to micro manage the remote worker.

They don't watch you from their desk they watch you from their computer dashboard.

I take the webinars and sit thru the trainings....It is not pretty.

[Claustrum]

16. Yup. I've seen companies requiring a number of key typed once in a while to make sure you are

working, or they open your camera to monitor you. The manager is not looking at you 24/7 but the software are monitoring you and would notify the managers if you fall below those thresholds. Not every companies are using this but I am sure some of them do.

[CrispyQ]

23. That didn't even occur to me.

I'm glad I retired before digital surveillance. It was bad enough having an electronic leash, but to be spied on by your computer. That's just wrong.

[Pinback]

5. LOL - good luck, jerk.

Does he know how many tech jobs are all or mostly remote these days? If you work in IT, you have a lot of choices right now. (From the perspective of someone with a decades-long career in IT and a kid who’s currently a software developer.)

[SheltieLover]

10. I hope they all quit, collectively!

What a jerk this moron is!

[dalton99a]

6. The asshole is turning it into a sweatshop like Tesla

Expect rampant racism and apartheid conditions

[ok_cpu]

7. I'm surprised he didn't wait longer to make mass layoffs

Would think attrition from this policy change would be high.

[Chakaconcarne]

9. Sounds like another brilliant move...

[Beausoleil]

11. Sounds like Mr. Musk is going to get a big dose of

Attrition.

It's a killer when everyone just up and leaves because they are fearful for their jobs.

Tech people have a LOT of options.

[Hugin]

17. Twitter is the new AOL.

Elon is the new Steven.

[TheBlackAdder]

18. Resilient companies have at least 30-50% of their staff remote for Business Continuity Planning.

.

Eloon is working on the pre-9/11 model.

.

[gab13by13]

19. This guy is supposed to be brilliant?

He's a fucking rich idiot.

[Me.]

20. He Really Is The Boss From Hell

[catrose]

21. What a jerk! Hasn't he heard that people can find other jobs?

[patphil]

22. So first you fire a whole lot of workers, and then start making demands of the survivors.

Great for morale; should encourage worker loyalty and productivity...NOT.
Bring back hours of dead time commuting in heavy traffic, with 5+ dollar gasoline! I guess he wants them to all buy Tesla electrics.
But, of course, the rest of the automobile manufactures are surging into the electric markets. Tesla was a great idea. Lets see how it does as the competition intensifies.
Perhaps Muskie isn't the genius entrepreneur he thinks he is.

[Indykatie]

24. The Twitter Workers Who Got Fired Will Be the Only Winners with Musk.

These ongoing change will cause many workers to leave voluntarily. I assumed these are folks filling critical roles since they weren't fired on day 3 of Musk's ownership.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. The Head Of A Multibillion Dollar Corporation....

...has to give personal approval for work-at-home exceptions?
This guy knows nothing about running a business.
Personal approval is mom & pop management stuff.
Silverspoon idiot who got lucky with a couple investments when investors overreacted to a couple modest successes.
Now, he's Mussolini.

[Silent3]

27. Consider how tough the job market is for companies trying to fill positions...

...I'd hope that not only the people fired by Musk, but those that simply don't want to stick around and deal with his bullshit, can easily find better work elsewhere.

Good luck running Twitter on a skeleton crew of the people most afraid of how marketable their own skill sets are.

[tinrobot]

31. This will only drive away the best/smartest employees

They can get work anywhere, even in this job market.

He'll be left with also-rans and sycophants for employees. But maybe that's what he wants.

[MichMan]

32. How many hired in with the expectation they would be working in the office?

If those were the conditions when you accepted the job, and it was OK before the pandemic, how can you claim it is totally unacceptable now?

[budkin]

34. Just another nail in Twitter's coffin

And totally unacceptable.