I don’t use Twitter myself, but I recognise what’s going on from having seen similar ‘new management’ situations in a much smaller context. To see it playing out at this scale (and so vigorously and fast) is quite something.
Because it comes across as whiny and clueless?
If he’d only said “Muck is taking away a benefit of free lunches, so now we have to spend unplanned funds” that’s accurate and not hyperbolic. I’d be mad, too.
Saying “we’re going to staaaarrrrvvvee!” is just entitled whinging. I, and uncounted millions of others, have had to budget out own lunch for our entire adult lives, so the thought of some cry baby entitled employees having to pack their own sandwich just doesn’t garner any sympathy.
For lack of any other place to post this - I’m currently in Twitmo for I don’t know how long just because I asked country singer John Rich if he shouldn’t be fucking a sheep right about now. So touchy with their free speech.
It’s not about “sympathy”, it’s about being competitive. Google HQ is 35 minutes down US 101 from Twitter HQ. Not that anyone is going to change jobs for Google’s free gourmet lunches, but it’s a strong indication of how much a company values their employees. If they treat you like shit and start pulling benefits and also threaten to fire you if you don’t toe the line, while another company down the road values their employees, where would you rather work?
It’s entirely possible that reducing employee benefits is the right short-term solution for a company in financial straits. But if so, Musk handled it in the worst possible way. Again, this is not about free lunches, it’s about gross mismanagement that is going to piss off the most valuable and marketable employees, the kind that headhunters are always after and can get a job anywhere.
I’d sooner bet that was prank sabotage by a now-former employee. Don’t screw with the smart people: they have ways subtle and mysterious.
Whatever “Borowitz” might be. I looked to be sure it was The New Yorker and not The Onion before I posted. I suppose I should have checked more thoroughly.
FTR, some years ago The New Yorker hired on the great satirist Andy Borowitz as a staff writer. His column on what was then BorowitzReport.com was then integrated into the New Yorker humour section. I’ve posted a number of links to the various Borowitz articles, and because they’re in the New Yorker, the satire has sometimes been mistaken for factual news. But as Borowitz says in the banner headline on his New Yorker page, “Not the News”!
Next time I’ll try to be clearer that it’s satire, sorry.
Sorry. I thought all the oldtimers here knew who Borowitz is.
Or maybe he should’ve not bought a company staffed by whiny entitled brats and let someone else take the loss on free lunch?
Getting meals for free five or six days a week isn’t just a ‘perk.’ It’s a substantial component of a benefits package. Axing it is the equivalent of a pay cut, even if nothing is changing on paper.
Is the dude who made that Tweet even a Twitter employee? Is there any indication that actual employees are saying that Musk is seriously trying to ‘starve’ them? Or is this just an excuse to call tech workers “whiny entitled brats?”
If you’re not Board of Directors level or above, you’re a “whiny entitled brat” who have no respect for your betters. /s
And for the business, the choice is between hiring a $200k engineer or a $150k + $5k worth of food engineer. If Elon is ever hiring engineers again, it will be at the higher number.
I’m certain that at least one twitter employee has uttered the words “but I’ll starve” on account of this, and I’m also certain that that twitter employee was making a joke when they said it. Googlers make the same joke whenever the office is closed for a few days.
I’m sure the main comedy genre among remaining twitter staff is “gallows humour”.
This is quite the exchange.
Markey responds:
As if an excuse is required. Everybody knows that “tech workers” are just a bunch of slack-ass kids playing hackysack and having meetings on those giant group bicycle conference tables talking in acronyms like UX and OWA. Seymour Cray used to literally dig for ideas and now these whippersnappers think they can come in rolling around in their two thousand dollar Hermann Miller chairs and their Oculus goggles and demand free lunch? Why, I oughta…!
As if Elon Musk is going to read a letter. <drax>So stupid!<\drax>
Stranger
Sure, which is why I made the point of including ‘seriously’ in there.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he is trying to ‘starve them out,’ though. Probably has an idea in his head that some of his employees are just there to mooch off the perks and if they quit, good riddance and he can hire somebody who “plays to win.”
Any satire must be clearly labeled ! See, Elon was right again ! 
(The above is meant as irony.)
Please, somebody, explain to me like I’m a child: What is the n-dimensional chess strategy according to which it’s a good idea to pick a fight with a sitting US senator?