Twitter staff are amazing

Hundreds of Twitter employees are believed to have quit after their new boss, Elon Musk, sent a memo demanding « long hours at high intensity » as a condition of their jobs.

Musk had already fired half of Twitter’s employees, leaving only around 3,000 when he later sent a team email that gave Twitter employees the choice of going « extremely hardcore » or leaving. Many have apparently chosen to leave.

This drama follows weeks including Twitter employees using the site to smear their new boss, refute his claims and urge him for ‘starving’ them after taking away the $400 lunches no one showed up for. to eat.

The latest outrage came from a series of emails in which Musk said he would consider firing managers who allow employees to work remotely. “You are also expected to have face-to-face meetings with your colleagues at a reasonable cadence, ideally once a week, but no less than once a month,” Musk wrote.

Oh the horror! You must report to work once a month to collect your salary!
Twitter employees get a lot of love and sympathy on Twitter from the Blue Check Squad, who are appalled that you could be fired for publicly humiliating your boss or refusing to introduce yourself.

But it’s hard to explain to people in the laptop class how weird this all looks for blue-collar workers. You’re asked to report to work and you tell your boss no – and you’re the victim here?

It’s just not something we could ever imagine getting away with. We have to get dressed and drive to work – and pay exorbitant gas prices to do so. We have to sit in traffic jams in the morning or ride crime-ridden public transport. We don’t have the luxury of staying home in pajama bottoms.

Throughout the COVID response, we blue collar workers showed up for work, day in and day out. There was no « stay home to save lives ». We risked illness while these people worked from home while watching TV in their pajamas.

So it’s hard for me to feel sympathy for them that this trend is coming to an end.
That’s not to say that I see Musk as some sort of free speech hero or someone trying to save America. He’s a man trying to run a business and make a profit.

But for blue-collar workers like me, seeing a company go up in flames because workers refuse to return to work after being privileged to stay home for three years is mind-boggling.

We’ve also paid for the work-from-home and work-anywhere trend in other ways. I live in Texas, which has seen an influx of immigrants in pajamas. They came and drove up the cost of housing, depriving many of the townspeople of a home in the town they love. And now a lot of those cities look totally different.

Craziest of all is that if you spend any time on Twitter these days, it’s clear the left is hoping Twitter fails under Musk. They vigorously opposed its takeover and now seem to want the site to implode.

It’s because they’ve gotten used to Twitter being on their side politically. And under Musk, there is again a real competition of ideas. The Conservatives had a chance to speak again. It’s almost as if liberal and left-wing elites believe that if they can’t control Twitter, no one should have access to it.

On Thursday evening, in light of the mass resignations, thousands of accounts began saying goodbye to each other in dramatic fashion, certain that the site would disappear by morning. But it was wishful thinking, a chance to “stick” with those who are, or are perceived to be, on the other side, who finally gained access to Twitter.

Charles Stallworth is a unionized railroad worker. Reprinted with permission from Newsweek.