The issue is not the layoffs, the issue is how they are managed. No other company is taking as much heat as twitter for layoffs because no one is managing it as badly. Elon Musk is heading the same path as Mark Zuckerberg - his brand has ended.
If some other ownership group came in and chopped 50% the exact same way…there would be less controversy. It might still make the news because it’s Twitter, much as other well known tech companies make the news with their layoffs…but the drama is because it’s Musk.
It's Musk, but also, because it's Musk, there is just a lot more coverage of the details of what is going on.
The biggest issue I see is that the employees are just in the dark. They literally have to follow Musk's public Twitter feed to glean anything about what is going on.
It creates a lot of chaos to fire your executive team then immediately start layoffs. Normally, something like this should be organized and clearly communicated and done with care and empathy. This whole process comes across as rough shod and unplanned.
>The biggest issue I see is that the employees are just in the dark.
Employees are almost always in the dark prior to getting “the pink slip”. In my 35+ year career have been through multiple layoffs through multiple companies/buyouts both on the surviving and RIF implementation side as well as the side getting cut. Never, ever was there full transparency and this was intentional. Most often the RIF itself is hidden from the general employee populace until the moment it starts happening. Then it starts happening and everyone sits around during the chaos and wonders if they are next while blood and tears run down the halls of the offices. Layoffs are ugly and there is no way to make them less ugly unless gobs of cash are provided to soften the blow. Even then, speaking from experience, it still sucks…just sucks a little less.
Everyone who got RIF’ed from the executives downward should not have been surprised. His intentions has been broadcast publicly from Musk himself for six months. I think this has actually been more transparent than most and perhaps because it’s more public than most, the external scrutiny makes it seem worse than others. It’s not, because as I said before, it’s always ugly.
I'm not talking about transparency in who is going to be fired. Apparently, employees have no idea who is in charge. Musk is the "chief twit" and no one has replaced the executives who were fired. Musk seems to be barking out ideas for new features with little thought and no one really knows what is going on.
