# Is it Legal? Elon Musk ultimatum. Do ‘extremely hardcore’ work or get out

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-legal-elon-musk-ultimatum-do-extremely-hardcore-work-or-get-out/975040>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 16, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-legal-elon-musk-ultimatum-do-extremely-hardcore-work-or-get-out/975040 "2022-11-16T17:11:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 324

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2022, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-legal-elon-musk-ultimatum-do-extremely-hardcore-work-or-get-out/975040/324 "2022-11-29T21:43:14Z")

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Sam, on the one hand you’re saying

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> If I were a young softwre developer again, I would have jumped at this chance. If you can impress a billionaire that you are special, you might leapfrog years or decades of advancement the traditional way. […]
> 
> Musk is the richest man in the world. The opportunity to hitch your wagon to him is extremely valuable. […]
> 
> But if my kid worked at Twitter and came home and said, “Elon Musk is firing everyone except a core group pf coders! I can take a payout now, or try to be in that group. What should I do?”
> 
> I would tell him that there is a real opportunity here for career advancement, but he’d have to be confident that his work is good enough and that he’s willing to put in long hours and put ip with some frustration for a time. If yes, I’d tell him to stay and take a awing. […]
> 
> […] the chance to work closely with the most successful entrepreneur of our time - a person who, if he is convinced you are an asset, could make your career take off. […]

And on the other hand you’re saying

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> It’s possible that Musk would just be such a lousy boss that hitching your wagon to him would be a bad idea. […]
> 
> Musk’s tweets often seem counterproductive. It seems sometimes like he’s a kid with a new toy. […]
> 
> My suspicion is that Musk is going to get hooked on the next thing at some point and take his focus elsewhere and appoint a new CEO who will calm everyone down.

If Musk is in fact a lousy boss who’s screwing up his company and its only chance of survival is having Musk wander off to “get hooked on the next thing” and let a competent leader replace him, then where the hell is the long-term advantage to “impressing” Musk or “working closely” with him or “hitching your wagon” to him?

The whole point of an employee throwing their cap over the windmill, so to speak, to go all in on a risky venture with an adventurous boss is that their confidence in the vision and trustworthiness of the boss outweighs their fear of the accompanying risks. This standard trope of inspirational business folklore premises that you hitch your wagon to the boss’s crazy moon-shot idea because you have faith in your boss, and have very good reason to believe that he/she has what it takes to make the dream happen, and also that he/she will be loyal to you in return for your beyond-the-call-of-duty service.

But if you’re confronted with a situation where (a) the business venture is high-stakes and high-risk and also (b) it’s highly likely that your boss is a petulant bastard with no personal loyalty to employees and a disastrous lack of impulse control, then that makes the wagon-hitching choice a much more questionable one.

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