Musk getting rid of 75% of Twitter staff

[jsd]

Respect: We demand leadership to respect the platform and the workers who maintain it by committing to preserving the current headcount. This is ridiculous, and it's not anything to do with respect.  Of course that's not going to happen.  But, the flip side of the no guaranteed jobs for anyone is that he can't make you stay, so feel free to leave.
 

"Don't fire us" isn't an unreasonable demand made by an employee who is already being threatened with termination, though I agree that it's not going be honored. It's just a last ditch effort to stay employed.

Safety: We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs.  We also demand safety for workers on visas, who will be forced to leave the country they work in if they are laid off. Again, this is not safety, and it's asking for guaranteed jobs for non-citizens.  Sorry, but you took a chance coming here, and there are no guarantees.  I don't wish bad things on these people, but making these sorts of demands to your boss is not the way to get them on your side and wanting to help you.

Following the law and not discriminating against employees is not an unreasonable demand. The part you bolded is really just an extension of the previous "Respect" demand. Well intentioned but toothless.

 Protection: We demand Elon Musk explicitly commit to preserve our benefits, those both listed in the merger agreement and not (e.g. remote work).  We demand leadership to establish and ensure fair severance policies for all workers before and after any change in leadership. You don't get to demand protection of your job, guaranteed remote work, and "fair" severance policies.  They're not a law.  But again, you are free to go find a better job, at a company that you feel will give you protection.
 

Honoring the terms of one's employment, when those terms included benefits and specific working arrangements, is not an unreasonable demand. 

Dignity: We demand transparent, prompt, and thoughtful communication around our working conditions.  We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires.

Transparency and communication at work is not an an unreasonable demand.

It's baffling that anyone would thing any of these four things were over the top. It makes me wonder what kind of Dickensian hellholes most people have been working at if they have taken offense to this.

[dfrecore]

Respect: We demand leadership to respect the platform and the workers who maintain it by committing to preserving the current headcount. This is ridiculous, and it's not anything to do with respect.  Of course that's not going to happen.  But, the flip side of the no guaranteed jobs for anyone is that he can't make you stay, so feel free to leave.
 

"Don't fire us" isn't an unreasonable demand made by an employee who is already being threatened with termination, though I agree that it's not going be honored. It's just a last ditch effort to stay employed.

This is not something you can demand.  It's something you can talk to your manager about - "I really like working here and would like to continue" is something any manager would be happy to hear.  But it's not necessarily "disrespect" to fire someone. 

Safety: We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs.  We also demand safety for workers on visas, who will be forced to leave the country they work in if they are laid off. Again, this is not safety, and it's asking for guaranteed jobs for non-citizens.  Sorry, but you took a chance coming here, and there are no guarantees.  I don't wish bad things on these people, but making these sorts of demands to your boss is not the way to get them on your side and wanting to help you.

Following the law and not discriminating against employees is not an unreasonable demand. The part you bolded is really just an extension of the previous "Respect" demand. Well intentioned but toothless.

I did not comment on the discrimination portion, because obvious.  I was commenting on what I highlighted. Which is ridiculous to demand.

 Protection: We demand Elon Musk explicitly commit to preserve our benefits, those both listed in the merger agreement and not (e.g. remote work).  We demand leadership to establish and ensure fair severance policies for all workers before and after any change in leadership. You don't get to demand protection of your job, guaranteed remote work, and "fair" severance policies.  They're not a law.  But again, you are free to go find a better job, at a company that you feel will give you protection.
 

Honoring the terms of one's employment, when those terms included benefits and specific working arrangements, is not an unreasonable demand. 

Benefits NOT listed in the merger agreement is what I was commenting on here. Again, ridiculous.

Dignity: We demand transparent, prompt, and thoughtful communication around our working conditions.  We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires.

Transparency and communication at work is not an an unreasonable demand.

It's baffling that anyone would thing any of these four things were over the top. It makes me wonder what kind of Dickensian hellholes most people have been working at if they have taken offense to this.

Demanding promptness, and "thoughtful" communication is kind of ridiculous.  First, I'm sure being called in to be fired feels prompt when you hear it, no matter if they do it now or next month or next year.  What is prompt?  Second, what is "thoughtful"?  How can you demand that?  If I feel like I've thought something through but you don't agree, who is right?

My whole issue, as you might have read in my previous post, are the DEMANDS.  You don't own the company, and don't get to make demands.  It's completely disrespectful to the owner and management.  Your demands are completely contradictory to themselves - you can't demand respect but not give it.  You can't demand thoughtful communication while putting rude demands out on the internet that are thoughtless and put management on the defense.  You can't demand to keep your job without saying what you're going to do for the company, why you want to work there, what it is you will be GIVING.  Demands are about getting, and that's just not the right way to approach this entire process.

Anyone who signs on to this demand letter should be fired.  Nobody should put up with their crap.

BTW - nowhere on here did I say that a company should not: obey the law, treat people with respect, have good communication with employees, etc. I'm talking about the demands themselves.

I work for perfectly good companies that treat me well, but I don't go around demanding things from them.  Most normal people don't.

[Pats20]

The protected classes. employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability and genetic information (including family medical history)

Otherwise at will employment.

Demands will get them nowhere. Quite honestly their demands look like they were drawn up by teenagers.

[ifomonay]

I know some people at Twitter. This is not an exaggeration, but 50-60% of the employees are working on nothing. They said that engineers who were hired two years ago are still not onboarded. Can you believe that? No code check-in, no nothing. So, yes a 75% reduction is too extreme when only 60% of the workforce is deadwood.