> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to give it to you straight.
I tried rewriting his email to live up to this promise:
- - -
Team,
We're cutting our workforce to strengthen Twitter as a company.
The team has been deciding how to best streamline Twitter, Vine, and Periscope to put their focus on the projects which will have the greatest impact. Moments, which we launched last week, is a great beginning. It's a peek into the future of how people will see what's going on in the world.
We plan to cut up to 336 people. This was a tough decision, and we'll offer each person a generous exit package and help finding a new job. Product and Engineering are going to make the most changes. Engineering will be smaller but remain the biggest percentage of the organization, and other departments will be cut in parallel.
This isn't easy. We'll honor those who we're losing with our service to all the people who use Twitter. We'll do it with a more purpose-built team. Thank you all for your trust and understanding here. As always, please reach out to me directly with any ideas or questions.
Really? Does it? I think Twitter needs a strong Twitter, shareholders need a strong Twitter even Twitter employees need it. However the world is, at best, ambivalent about Twitter, if it disappeared tomorrow a replacement would spring up within a few weeks if the world really needed a way to shotgun their messages into the ether.
A few automated trading algorithms would become marginally less effective. Some poorly written ones might crash or make a few million dollars worth of bad trades.
Odd. While incredibly flawed it's still the single best toolto fight against censorship and public and private control. If you have doubts go look at how many national governments have blocked it at one time or another. The world is better off with a strong Twitter.
I think you have a point. I use Twitter a lot for professional and sometime personal reasons however it does have potential to be replaced by a better networking site. Even though its a powerful tool, I don't think it helps users and businesses like it use to, unless you pay for features. Ashton Kutcher explained how Twitter, not Facebook, can be the new Myspace: http://www.askmeanything.me/influencers/ashtonkutcher
The alternatives have no base, no brand and aren't as universally accessible (regardless of blockages). The world needs Twitter because Twitter is the most efficient way of reaching a large audience quickly NOW. Regardless of what the future holds, or "what-if" scenarios the reality remains that Twitter holds a place as the world's voice in certain situations.
The number, 336, is roughly 10% of their employees - which is pretty much exactly the number that Jack Welch recommended turning over each year to improve the work force.
I often wonder whether these "layoffs" aren't actually layoffs, but simply performance based assessments. It's not like Twitter is shutting down an entire office, or abandoning some technology, and letting everyone associated with that office/technology go - presumably they are being selective on other factors as to who they let go - and I'm guessing that performance is likely a key factor.
If, over the next year, twitter doesn't hire back that 10%, or hires employees in different technologies/positions (I.E. Web developers instead of thick client developers, sales people instead of developers, etc...) - then this is a layoff. But, if headcount returns to the same number, in roughly the same job areas, then this is just a performance based annual rank/yank process.
A large company with stable growth can afford to lose and retrain 10% of its workforce each year. It's also a lot more difficult to get fired from a very large company, so some forced fat-trimming is often necessary. Twitter is not that big, and it's growth is not very stable right now.
Any layoff is going to be a morale hit, and they're likely to lose some very talented people in the aftershocks. The last company I worked for laid off 25% of the employees, and within a few months another 10% had been poached or found other places to work (myself included).
I worked for one of those mega corporation that followed Welch's book, only they didn't have the courage to openly state it, oh and screw the top 30%. They would "layoff" 10% every year blaming the bad economy.
A friend even tried to fire a guy for bad performance and high management told him to wait for the next "annual layoff", that it would be easier.
It should be aligned to whatever functions they are stopping doing. I think the message indicated they were focusing on high impact areas (whatever that might mean). The opposite of that is low impact areas would likely lose staff, right?
This. I never understood this mentality that all cuts are bad or evil or whatever. Funny, we never question when these companies go on a hiring spree. No one asks, "Do they need this many engineers? Will these people have jobs in two years?"
Restructures happen all the time, especially at dotcoms. If you work in this industry, then you can expect some level of volatility.
That seems a little unfair to Twitter - he's a remote worker, so they couldn't have the Bobs meet with him in a conference room. He does report "a side effect of WFH. HR can't wait for you to come in. Granted they also called but that went to voice mail."
Holy &#$^%, that's harsh. I mean, usually you announce the layoffs but leave it for a few days as you talk to people, look for voluntaries etc. Cutting a remote worker out as you send the announcement email is unwarranted and cold, and burns bridges unnecessarily.
This. It's the thing that stands apart from the rest of the email. "Up to 336". Huh? That is far too specific. Either that was an exact percentage of staff, or they have the list of 336 people, and may reverse on up to a couple of dozen if they fight for their positions with good explanations as to why they deserve to stay.
"Up to 336". The fact that phrase made it into the email is unbelievable. Who, being at the head of a company so large, writes with that kind of language?
> The roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact. We launched the first of these experiences last week with Moments, a great beginning, and a bold peek into the future of how people will see what's going on in the world.
That Moments is mentioned so high up in the email isn't particularly reassuring...since it means they haven't launched many other initiatives of note recently. Moments as a feature is extremely disappointing given the years of interesting discoveries that Twitter has yielded algorithmically via its, well, "Discover" tab. What's on Moments looks like a half-baked newspaper front page except when you click on an item, you go to tweets about that item instead of a full story.
I don't want to pile on the project as it is new...but it should've been given more thought and design time given how much prominence "Moments" has on the interface (it is one of four main icons on the menubar)...Nearly all of the stories are hours old...e.g. "Wave of terror attacks hits Jerusalem" and "Playboy covers up"..."FedEx truck splits in two", granted, is news to me...but not something that makes Twitter unique to me.
There's so much more potential in the Trends section...OK, maybe Twitter wants to filter out potentially visually NSFW topics like #NoBraDay...but things like #MH17 and #VMworld and #ILoveYouAboutAsMuchAs...just show me an automated feed of tweets by reputable sources (rather than spambots or random kids) so I can understand why these topics are suddenly trending without having to click through the trends tag and sort through a overwhelming timeline.
edit: that said, I like all the other products...besides core Twitter, Vine and Periscope are standouts (at least, as a consumer)...I just think that "Moments" isn't worth putting into the spotlight, unless there is literally nothing else to be proud of publicly.
> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to give it to you straight.
Well, since you said it that way, I should assume that what comes next will not sound like a steamy pile of meandering corporate speak, right?
> The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are shaping up to be strong. The roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact.
A roadmap focused on high-impact experiences. Got it. I hope your firings go really well, Bob.
He said he would give it to you straight, not ELI5. They are focusing on fewer things that they believe are the most valuable, and stopping stuff that isn't core to their purpose. What about this is confusing to you?
"As many of you who have(had) vested stock with us know, our stock and investor faith have collapsed - and in a desperation move to win back our shareholder's trust, we are 'going lean,' so to speak, so we spent a mid-six-figure sum in hiring an outside consulting agency to eliminate human capital - so we didn't have to review it internally - regardless of what you've built with us."
I see what you're saying -- but if the "generous exit packages" and "help finding a new job" are true, then it's still way better than some companies I've worked at, where the firings consisted of two weeks of pay and being escorted out of the building on the same day (of course, said companies weren't in SV).
Of course, given his buzzword-filled talk, those "generous exit packages" might just consist of two weeks pay as well.
"Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to
give it to you straight."
Three paragraphs later...
"So we have made an extremely tough decision: we plan to part ways with
up to 336 people from across the company."
Edit: My bad, I should have been clearer in what I meant. There isn't really any corporate speak, but I wouldn't call 3 paragraphs of fluff 'giving it to you straight'
I'm a little surprised that they're only firing 336 people. Unless this is just the first round of layoffs and more will follow once products and management has been streamlined/trimmed whatever you want to call it.
This truly sucks - I'm sorry to hear that. If you're one of the unlucky engineers that caught up in all this - reach out to the email address in my profile. We're hiring tons of awesome engineers at Uber, and if that's not the right fit for you I can help get you connected to other SF companies as well.
The "moments" feature will be a failure. They're essentially building an editorial model on top of Twitter - something they (as the platform creators) shouldn't be worried with.
The decentralized model of Twitter's content creation is an asset. If you group those into a more traditional top down model, you lose the uniqueness and power of the Twitter platform.
I'm seriously impressed by Twitter's service ... doing fan-out for so many popular celebrities, so seamlessly, for so many readers is an accomplishment.
But I'm seriously curious why they have 4,000+ employees.
What in the hell are all those people doing?
300~ people being laid off is nothing. I wouldn't have been shocked if they said they were laying off 1,000+ people. I think entire departments probably need to go.
"[..] Engineering will move [..] faster with a smaller [..] team [..] we [will] part ways with [..] 336 people. [..] with the utmost respect [..] the world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there."
> Let's take this time to express our gratitude to all of those who are leaving us.
Gratitude in the form of not telling employees that they were laid off, and letting them find out when they try to check their email in the morning? [0]
Slightly OT, but honestly I think the world really doesn't need Twitter. If you view the evolution of the internet as a phenomenon fundamentally linked to the emergence of a global cultural consensus, or even consciousness, then to reduce a sizable fraction of its bandwidth to 140 chars, vicious echochambers and a communication mechanism custom designed to bump people's thoughts out-of-context for the purposes of ridicule then Twitter should be viewed as harmful. I hope some of these coming changes directly address the harm current Twitter does to the quality of human communication on the net.
[+] [-] Sidnicious|10 years ago|reply
I tried rewriting his email to live up to this promise:
- - -
Team,
We're cutting our workforce to strengthen Twitter as a company.
The team has been deciding how to best streamline Twitter, Vine, and Periscope to put their focus on the projects which will have the greatest impact. Moments, which we launched last week, is a great beginning. It's a peek into the future of how people will see what's going on in the world.
We plan to cut up to 336 people. This was a tough decision, and we'll offer each person a generous exit package and help finding a new job. Product and Engineering are going to make the most changes. Engineering will be smaller but remain the biggest percentage of the organization, and other departments will be cut in parallel.
This isn't easy. We'll honor those who we're losing with our service to all the people who use Twitter. We'll do it with a more purpose-built team. Thank you all for your trust and understanding here. As always, please reach out to me directly with any ideas or questions.
Jack
[+] [-] celticninja|10 years ago|reply
Really? Does it? I think Twitter needs a strong Twitter, shareholders need a strong Twitter even Twitter employees need it. However the world is, at best, ambivalent about Twitter, if it disappeared tomorrow a replacement would spring up within a few weeks if the world really needed a way to shotgun their messages into the ether.
[+] [-] dangerlibrary|10 years ago|reply
So, you know, there's that.
[+] [-] jusben1369|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ljk|10 years ago|reply
Everyone wants to make the world a better place
[+] [-] roymurdock|10 years ago|reply
Also interesting to note that over the past year insiders have only bought 1.5m shares while offloading 12.5m.
[1] http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/twtr/ownership-summary
[+] [-] BinaryIdiot|10 years ago|reply
When you're the CEO of twitter, yes. You're not going to say anything else.
[+] [-] JustSomeNobody|10 years ago|reply
/s
[+] [-] bromelus2013|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] gaius|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] huslage|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beeboop|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|10 years ago|reply
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151012/22104032520/just-...
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghshephard|10 years ago|reply
I often wonder whether these "layoffs" aren't actually layoffs, but simply performance based assessments. It's not like Twitter is shutting down an entire office, or abandoning some technology, and letting everyone associated with that office/technology go - presumably they are being selective on other factors as to who they let go - and I'm guessing that performance is likely a key factor.
If, over the next year, twitter doesn't hire back that 10%, or hires employees in different technologies/positions (I.E. Web developers instead of thick client developers, sales people instead of developers, etc...) - then this is a layoff. But, if headcount returns to the same number, in roughly the same job areas, then this is just a performance based annual rank/yank process.
[+] [-] jobu|10 years ago|reply
Any layoff is going to be a morale hit, and they're likely to lose some very talented people in the aftershocks. The last company I worked for laid off 25% of the employees, and within a few months another 10% had been poached or found other places to work (myself included).
[+] [-] Coincoin|10 years ago|reply
A friend even tried to fire a guy for bad performance and high management told him to wait for the next "annual layoff", that it would be easier.
[+] [-] matt_s|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|10 years ago|reply
Restructures happen all the time, especially at dotcoms. If you work in this industry, then you can expect some level of volatility.
[+] [-] uptown|10 years ago|reply
Bart might disagree:
https://twitter.com/bartt/status/653946266938818561
[+] [-] adevine|10 years ago|reply
Whenever you have a large layoff, it is fairly standard to lock accounts immediately.
[+] [-] ianmcgowan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toyg|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] developer1|10 years ago|reply
"Up to 336". The fact that phrase made it into the email is unbelievable. Who, being at the head of a company so large, writes with that kind of language?
[+] [-] danso|10 years ago|reply
That Moments is mentioned so high up in the email isn't particularly reassuring...since it means they haven't launched many other initiatives of note recently. Moments as a feature is extremely disappointing given the years of interesting discoveries that Twitter has yielded algorithmically via its, well, "Discover" tab. What's on Moments looks like a half-baked newspaper front page except when you click on an item, you go to tweets about that item instead of a full story.
I don't want to pile on the project as it is new...but it should've been given more thought and design time given how much prominence "Moments" has on the interface (it is one of four main icons on the menubar)...Nearly all of the stories are hours old...e.g. "Wave of terror attacks hits Jerusalem" and "Playboy covers up"..."FedEx truck splits in two", granted, is news to me...but not something that makes Twitter unique to me.
There's so much more potential in the Trends section...OK, maybe Twitter wants to filter out potentially visually NSFW topics like #NoBraDay...but things like #MH17 and #VMworld and #ILoveYouAboutAsMuchAs...just show me an automated feed of tweets by reputable sources (rather than spambots or random kids) so I can understand why these topics are suddenly trending without having to click through the trends tag and sort through a overwhelming timeline.
edit: that said, I like all the other products...besides core Twitter, Vine and Periscope are standouts (at least, as a consumer)...I just think that "Moments" isn't worth putting into the spotlight, unless there is literally nothing else to be proud of publicly.
[+] [-] acaloiar|10 years ago|reply
Well, since you said it that way, I should assume that what comes next will not sound like a steamy pile of meandering corporate speak, right?
> The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are shaping up to be strong. The roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact.
A roadmap focused on high-impact experiences. Got it. I hope your firings go really well, Bob.
[+] [-] wickawic|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adevine|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FilterSweep|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrkipling|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] parennoob|10 years ago|reply
Of course, given his buzzword-filled talk, those "generous exit packages" might just consist of two weeks pay as well.
[+] [-] johnward|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] debacle|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ChrisLTD|10 years ago|reply
Let's not get carried away here. Twitter is great. I use it too much of the day. But the world hardly needs Twitter.
[+] [-] antirez|10 years ago|reply
+
> We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use Twitter.
SYNTAX ERROR
[+] [-] MattBearman|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrweasel|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ngoel36|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] josefresco|10 years ago|reply
The decentralized model of Twitter's content creation is an asset. If you group those into a more traditional top down model, you lose the uniqueness and power of the Twitter platform.
[+] [-] xmpir|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TheMagicHorsey|10 years ago|reply
But I'm seriously curious why they have 4,000+ employees.
What in the hell are all those people doing?
300~ people being laid off is nothing. I wouldn't have been shocked if they said they were laying off 1,000+ people. I think entire departments probably need to go.
There has to be a lot of dead weight at Twitter.
[+] [-] petercooper|10 years ago|reply
Or basically, Twitter is weaker with you in it.
[+] [-] GuiA|10 years ago|reply
Gratitude in the form of not telling employees that they were laid off, and letting them find out when they try to check their email in the morning? [0]
Fuck that noise.
[0] https://twitter.com/bartt/status/653946266938818561 + exact same thing happened to a good friend of mine who didn't tweet about it + hearing reports of it happening to others
[+] [-] chipgap98|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Wintamute|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] piratebroadcast|10 years ago|reply