Elon Musk’s now-famous ultimatum to Twitter employees where they can choose to remain at the company and be “hard-core” or they can accept a three-month severance and leave has backfired.
Shocker.
In other news, grass is green and the sky is blue and the sun will come out tomorrow.
Seriously, what did he think was going to happen? He’s riling up Twitter employees at every level of the organization with chaos, unrealistic demands and deadlines, and swings in direction — not to mention layoffs (both real and threatened). So when he sent out the company-wide email where people had to click a link and essentially “commit” to being hardcore and creating Twitter 2.0, it should be no surprise that people weren’t yet willing to make that commitment. Plus, three months pay for a lot of people who routinely get calls by recruiters to leave probably seems like a wallop of a bonus.
Elon took a hard stance believing that most would want to keep their jobs. He thought he had all the leverage. Tough economy coming… holidays coming… people believing in what they do at a large, highly visible, near-utility-esque company… He was wrong. Now he and his top lieutenants are reaching out to employees who didn’t “click the button” and they’re trying to retain them. He’s also walking back his stance on requiring employees to come to the office each day.
Here’s the thing — the world has taken a dramatic left turn over the last 20 years (say, the last generation) where people have split “what I do” from “who I am”. The work-to-live vibe versus live-to-work has penetrated every type of career. People value their personal time, their family time, their non-working hours. Paychecks haven’t kept up with the economic reality over the last decade or so and therefore people don’t feel the financial ties as much as they once did. The world around us has become more chaotic and people are defining themselves based on their individual contributions to community and less on their contributions to their employer. Moods toward company leadership and financial pressures have soured even the most chipper corporate employees.
It’s about the employee.
It’s always been about the employee.
It will always be about the employee.
If you want your employees to be loyal and driven and committed to your company (i.e. your company’s goals, your company’s culture, your company’s customers) you have to bring the company’s values to them not drag them toward the company’s values. Dragging could work short-term but it’s only a matter of time before they walk out because they don’t feel the same level of commitment as ownership (or leadership).
Elon though he’d get more people who were committed to creating his vision of Twitter 2.0 when in reality he had a bunch of people who were just going to work and doing their job for a company that was taking them on a roller-coaster ride every single day. Even for those who loved the company and the product, at some point enough is enough.
Under new ownership, Twitter has a culture problem that’s even greater than a revenue problem. Combined, it could be lethal.