• Nando’s Castellin

  Tech . Editor

It seems that the chaos in Twitter is increasing day by day. The first week ended with Elon Musk leading an unprecedented round of layoffs. Those who are still working are under tremendous pressure. The new owner himself is still only communicating via tweets.

“The speed of the chapter round, the way it happened and how often it happened, is unique,” ​​says Leen Paape, professor of corporate governance at the University of Nyenrode. “Usually, it takes new CEOs a hundred days to figure out what a new strategy should look like. How Musk works can be quickly described by Dutch standards as inadequate management.”

About 3,700 Twitter employees lost their jobs in the layoffs round. Significant was the fact that dozens of them were asked to return this weekend, He writes for Bloomberg News. Turns out their dismissal was a mistake or their knowledge was necessary after all and the managers found out too late. Subscription service for verification (“blue checks”) has been postponed for two days, He writes for the New York TimesFor fear of abuses surrounding the US midterm elections tomorrow.

Everything is being developed and implemented in a hurry. This increases the chances of errors occurring a lot. What the current Twitter panel looks like is also unclear. What is certain is that Musk has crowned himself as CEO.

He surrounded himself with confidants. The Financial Times writes They meet from the so-called war room – The office space where everything is controlled – coming up with all kinds of plans. There, venture capitalists Jason Calacanis and David Sachs take on new positions, Musk’s personal attorney Alex Spiro is in charge of policy and legal affairs, and Jared Birshall, who manages Musk’s capital, is in charge of finances.

As far as is known, Musk has not yet addressed the staff. Employees have to rely on what he delivers via Twitter. Musk’s only direct message came in the form of an email announcing a massive layoff. And although it was clear to everyone that he was behind it, he signed it not himself, but Twitter.

The demobilization round itself went into great chaos and uncertainty. The New York Times described A video meeting from which someone suddenly disappeared: the person turned out to be fired and immediately lost access. There doesn’t seem to be a list of who was still working there. Writing a technical newsletter syllabus That people message each other via Slack: Everyone who responds has been added to a list in Google Docs.

Musk says significant workforce cuts are needed. The company loses $4 million a day.

Pappe points out that CEOs often lay off jobs when they take over. that happened Recently at Philips. “But things usually go much better than what happened on Twitter.” It already indicates that it is much easier to kick people out in the United States than here in the Netherlands.

It is also unusual for Musk to now serve as CEO of at least three companies: Tesla, SpaceX, and thus Twitter. While he probably won’t always want to hold this position at Twitter, it’s unclear how long the current situation will last.

My work load has increased from 80 hours to 120 hours per week. Musk said Friday at a conference. “I have to do this in the near future, I have no choice. When Twitter is on the right track, it is much easier to control than SpaceX or Tesla.”

Professor Pape says he doesn’t know anyone who approaches Musk’s hours and how many businesses he runs at the same time. “If you are a supervisory manager at one of his companies, it is your duty to ask whether this is desirable and humane.”