I debated long and hard about weighing in on the Elon Musk Twitter debacle. After all, I’ve spent my entire career in the technology industry – an industry that has long been associated with powerful, mostly white men like Musk who have been both revered for their innovations while being reviled for their management styles and methods. Steve Jobs. Larry Ellison. Mark Zuckerberg. It almost seems as if the recipe for success has to include some level of “douchiness” for lack of a better term.
Recently, I read a defense of Musk and the now-infamous letter that he sent to Twitter employees asking them to be “hard-core” or resign. This defense of Musk compared him to other technology leaders who were known to be tough, particularly in the face of a company that required a cultural change, and noted that the great thing about our country is you have a choice of where you’d like to work, so those who didn’t want to subscribe to Elon’s “vision” could simply choose not to work there.
Unfortunately, what this defense of Musk forgot is that not all employees received this letter or a choice in the matter. Some, like my daughter’s friend, received a 3:00 AM email and were given no choice, discarded like yesterday’s trash without a simple, human interaction, cut off immediately from all of their company resources and applications, told not to show up for work the next day without any warning. And far from being a high-ranking executive with a golden parachute, this now-former employee will be struggling to make rent without a paycheck.
Those employees on work visas certainly don’t have a choice – unless, of course, they’d like to be uprooted and sent back to their country of origin. And I suppose it is technically a choice for those who have a family to support and a mortgage, or ongoing health issues that necessitate medical insurance – at least until they’ve found another job – if they can manage to squeeze in the interviews while they’re devoting their “hard core” hours to Elon.
When did we decide that treating people this way was a good and necessary quality in a leader? When did we conclude that the only way to turn a company around, to be successful in a capitalistic system, is to be cold, uncaring, and downright nasty? And how, in this pre-pandemic world of remote and hybrid work, with the discovery of the mental and physical health and productivity benefits of work-life balance, did we wind up with this guy, who subscribes to the outdated ‘round the clock, sleep-in-your-office style work, that is reminiscent of the 1980s “greed is good” model?
Perhaps it’s still primarily an American way of thinking. Certainly, in her recent response to Musk’s “the bird is freed” tweet, European Union official, Thierry Breton, made it clear that Elon’s mode of operation won’t work in Europe. Breton tweeted back “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules”, letting Elon know that Europe has strict guidelines for how to treat employees, not to mention much more stringent content rules. Twitter will either have to comply or be banned from the European market. As this Los Angeles Times article explains, Twitter was forced already to rescind the firing of one European executive since her termination notice didn’t comply with EU standards – standards that ensure employees are treated with some level of civility and respect. Imagine that.
Musk wants employees to be “hard core” to implement his vision for Twitter. What is this so-called vision? Free speech on Twitter seems to mean allowing disinformation (the revoking of the Covid misinformation policy is just one example) but suspending anyone who dares to make fun of Elon. According to this New York Times article, hate speech’s rise on Twitter since Musk took over is unprecedented. And allowing disinformation and hate kings like Donald Trump and Kanye West back on the platform has certainly contributed to this pattern (late-breaking update that posting a Swastika finally crossed a line for Musk and he ejected Kanye from the platform again).
Furthermore, in trying to change Twitter into an engineering-led company that asks users to pay-for-play, Musk has made one mistake after another. He seems to have forgotten that Twitter is not like Tesla with a product manufactured in a factory. Twitter is a social media platform that caters to two main audiences – users and advertisers. Great code alone will serve neither audience. The tech industry is littered with startups founded by great engineers who couldn’t market their way out of a paper bag. Anyone recall that great GUI developed at Xerox Parc?
In my own 30+ years in the tech industry, I’ve worked for many leaders who had to make tough choices about cost-cutting, layoffs, and enacting broad cultural changes. The true leaders (who also experienced great success, by the way) treated everyone with dignity. By contrast, Musk behaves like an angry toddler, intent on getting his way and listening only to his inner voice – a dangerous quality in any “leader”.
Time will tell, of course, and if money is the only measure of success, it’s clear that Musk has been successful with his previous ventures. But if being a good leader and a builder of lasting companies where people want to work is the measure, the jury is definitely still out.
Needless to say, I left Twitter – deactivating both of my accounts – just after Musk took over. I’ve been neither surprised by Musk’s actions nor have I been shocked by those who have defended him. But I have been saddened at the continued acceptance in our country – championing, even – of so-called leaders behaving badly, treating people with disrespect, and asking them to commit to an unnecessary and unhealthy (both mentally and physically) style of work until you drop. Just as our country rejected a political leader in 2020 who ruled with hate and disrespect, I hope we’ll soon turn our backs on the kind of business leadership style that embraces those tenets, as well.
suburbandirt 