# Why quit Twitter? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148 "2022-11-18T15:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/61 "2022-11-21T23:17:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > but there’s not always an obvious exit from a situation like that; some people hang on in there because they fear the potential adverse outcomes of just quitting The good engineers know they’ll be snatched up in an instant. It’s the marginal and poor engineers who tend to hang on. This is often called _paying your good people to leave._ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/62 "2022-11-21T23:25:43Z")
That, but not just that. Some role types in the tech world just have very fluid job markets where jumping around is very normal; others, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/63 "2022-11-21T23:36:35Z")
There’s also the H1B ones or the ones who may have ongoing health issues in their family. I can’t blame them for not leaving a known, if problematic situation, if they need more security than that. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/64 "2022-11-22T00:07:40Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The good engineers know they’ll be snatched up in an instant. It’s the marginal and poor engineers who tend to hang on. This is often called _paying your good people to leave._ Ehh, there’s other categories. I hung on to a bad job run by literal criminals\* far too long because I underestimated my abilities. I started looking for a job because for the second time they’d run off everyone else who did my job and I knew from the last time that I was going to again be on-call 24/7/365\*\*. Little did I know that I’d be totally adored and compensated beyond my wildest dreams at my next job. \*Seriously, former CEO has been arrested twice for fraud since then. \*\*And from my first experience at that, my primary question when someone started claiming something was an emergency became “How many people are likely to die?” If the answer was 0, then it wasn’t an emergency, just a poor business plan in action. It can wait until I get in, and I’m hanging up now. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/65 "2022-11-22T00:33:10Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > \*Seriously, former CEO has been arrested twice for fraud since then. Heh, too late to edit, but I just bothered to look it up. He’ll be out in 2031. He actually had a pretty good 20-something year run for a crook. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/66 "2022-11-22T12:24:18Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I hung on to a bad job run by literal criminals\* far too long because I underestimated my abilities A buddy of mine worked for a big company for years. He gradually became suspicious about illegal activities. Then one Sunday night he was watching 60 Minutes and saw his boss get ambushed. He says he got up, poured himself a drink, and shut off his alarm clock. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/67 "2022-11-22T13:36:11Z")
Yeah, I was just reading how employees at Twitter had to “sign away their option to take severance” before seeing what Musk has in store. That level of uncertainty seemed to push most to say FTS and just bail. > **[How likely is a complete Twitter meltdown?](https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137819206/twitter-shutting-down-likelihood)** > > Twitter employees who've quit say risks are growing of service outages, glitches and even hacks on the influential social network. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/68 "2022-11-22T16:10:19Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 7,500 is what I keep reading. > > Cite: > > [How many employees does Twitter have?](https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/11/04/how-many-employees-does-twitter-have/) Not disputing the cite in any way but … An additional factor in lots of companies, especially tech companies, is the number of non-employees who are still full-time workers _at_ the company despite not working _for_ the company. If indeed Twitter had 7,500 full time employees on its books, there might have been 1,000 or 10,000 additional contractors, sub-contractors, etc., all laboring to make Twitter what it was. The loss of some or all of that pile of people can be, especially in tech, a bigger deal than the loss of the actual employee-employees. I’ve not been paying real close attention to the primary sources about Twitter’s recent trial by tornado, but I’ve not heard this issue addressed in any systematic way. Has anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/69 "2022-11-22T16:42:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’ve not been paying real close attention to the primary sources about Twitter’s recent trial by tornado, but I’ve not heard this issue addressed in any systematic way. > > Has anyone else? According to this [CNBC article](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/13/twitter-suddenly-cuts-large-number-of-contract-workers.html) from last week, 4,400 out of 5,500 contractors were let go. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/70 "2022-11-22T16:46:45Z")
Thank you. > **LSLGuy** : No Elon, “decimate” means kill 1 in 10, not leave 1 in 10 standing. > > **Elon** : D’oh! :forehead-slap: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/71 "2022-11-22T16:49:33Z")
Now that’s shocking if true. He killed off the grunts who did the footwork at the same time he killed management. This cannot be survivable. He just threw away billions for being forced into keeping his word to buy Twitter. Just because he could, a sick message to any other company he looks to take over. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/72 "2022-11-23T16:19:46Z")
That sounds a lot like threatening: “Either you commit suicide with this gun I just gave you, or I’ll kill you with this other gun I have.” Seems an … unproductive offer to make someone. Then again, I’m not a Bond Villain, so what do I know of these high-stakes games? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/73 "2022-11-23T17:03:15Z")
I got laid off in a job where I was the whole of the IT department for a small company (the ‘IT guy’ covering everything from infrastructure to development to ad hoc fixes for the home computers of relatives of the boss). I came into the office after being told I was redundant, just to clear a few personal items off my desk and the office manager started loading stuff in my car. Boxes of laser printer paper, spindles of blank CD ROMs, all of the one-per-whole-office items of office equipment like the long-arm stapler, 4-hole punch, paper guillotine, etc. I tried to ask why but he shushed me and carried on. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/74 "2022-11-23T17:07:24Z")
User name and post match. Man Get Out! ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/75 "2022-11-23T17:28:55Z")
Brilliant! j ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/76 "2022-11-25T00:24:18Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Every time I’ve heard of from companies circling the drain and trying to offload headcount, the first payout offer is always the best one. Apparently people fired yesterday got only four weeks. They lost out on two months severance by responding “yes” to Elon. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/z3wxtw/elon\_musk\_fires\_engineers\_who\_believe\_in\_twitter/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_name=androidcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/z3wxtw/elon_musk_fires_engineers_who_believe_in_twitter/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2022, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/77 "2022-11-25T00:47:18Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Apparently people fired yesterday got only four weeks. They lost out on two months severance by responding “yes” to Elon. But they got to be part of Musk’s ‘vision’ for Twitter for a whole week! What is severance in comparison to approbating the Great Elon, Master and Commander of the Great Ship _Egotastic_? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2022, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148/78 "2022-11-25T05:36:15Z")
Are you even a real billionaire if you haven’t smashed a multi-billion dollar company for fun? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-quit-twitter/975148.md?page=3)