Economy

‘Musk Derangement Syndrome’

Published on June 17, 2022

Elon Musk once again tried to calm the nerves of snowflakes working at Twitter letting them that his intention is to help make the social media platform financially solvent.

For this to happen, Musk said the platform must be open up for all users, and for remote workers to start making the move into Twitter’s offices.

During an all-hands meeting with Twitter employees on Thursday, Musk reportedly failed to convince some workers who remain fiercely opposed to the billionaire’s $44 billion takeovers, according to an engineer who attended the gathering.

The Twitter insider has said that some of the Big Tech employees at the social media company are suffering from “Musk derangement syndrome,” Insider reported (via the New York Post).

According to the report, an unnamed Twitter employee said that some colleagues remain skeptical about Musk’s future plans for the company.

“It seemed like some of my colleagues were experiencing ‘Musk derangement syndrome’ again,” the anonymous engineering employee told the outlet. “I guess it’s the direct opposite of the ‘Musk fanboy syndrome.’ For me, the meeting motivated me and took me back to my north star of doing something well while I’m at Twitter.”

The engineer added that he’s “not worried about” Musk’s “online presence reflecting poorly on Twitter as a company” or impacting the company’s share price.

“If he took Twitter public again after making it private, it would maybe be an issue,” he reasoned. “But so far, I think it’s only benefited him.”

Musk doubled down on his commitment to buy Twitter during the all-hands meeting despite a recent stall in negotiations due to his concerns about spam bots within the platform’s user base.

But some workers have been opposed to the acquisition from the start, citing Musk’s propensity to confront users’ tweets on the platform and the fears he will allow more “harmful content”.

Musk also came out firmly against remote work at Tesla – sparking speculation about what stance he would take for Twitter workers if the deal closes.

When asked about remote work during the all-hands meeting, Musk said some Twitter employees would be permitted to stay home but it is “much better if you are on location physically.”

“If someone can only work remotely and they’re exceptional, it wouldn’t make sense to fire them,” Musk reportedly said.

“People are flipping out about those comments. And that makes sense,” the engineer said. “Many people don’t live in San Francisco or near another Twitter office. What requires a bigger conversation is what we’re going to do about people who joined the company as remote workers.”

As someone who worked in the Bay Area, the commute IS brutal, which makes the ability to work remotely a highly coveted benefit.

Once at a job working remotely, the idea of having to spend hours on the road every day driving into San Francisco, at $7.00 per gallon, will lead to some at Twitter jumping ship to another tech company that will allow them to still work from home.

Musk also indicated that layoffs may take place at the tech company, as “right now, costs exceed revenue.”

“That’s not a great situation,” he said. “The company does need to get healthy.”