
Twitter announces layoffs - uptown
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000156459015008360/twtr-ex991_6.htm
======
Sidnicious
> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to
> give it to you straight.

I tried rewriting his email to live up to this promise:

\- - -

Team,

We're cutting our workforce to strengthen Twitter as a company.

The team has been deciding how to best streamline Twitter, Vine, and Periscope
to put their focus on the projects which will have the greatest impact.
Moments, which we launched last week, is a great beginning. It's a peek into
the future of how people will see what's going on in the world.

We plan to cut up to 336 people. This was a tough decision, and we'll offer
each person a generous exit package and help finding a new job. Product and
Engineering are going to make the most changes. Engineering will be smaller
but remain the biggest percentage of the organization, and other departments
will be cut in parallel.

This isn't easy. We'll honor those who we're losing with our service to all
the people who use Twitter. We'll do it with a more purpose-built team. Thank
you all for your trust and understanding here. As always, please reach out to
me directly with any ideas or questions.

Jack

~~~
hitekker
Everyone should take note of this person's excellent structure: he put the
decision first.

If you are writing a decisive message that can greatly impact many people's
lives: write the decision first.

Don't "sandwich" the truth. Sandwiching only makes sense when the decision or
the mistake is not of huge significance. Beating around the bush in matters of
great import will always harm the sincerity of your words.

After you've stated clearly what the decision is, right after that, you can
justify it however you wish.

~~~
rodgerd
> Everyone should take note of this person's excellent structure: he put the
> decision first.

Going by my twitter feed, they _implemented_ the decision first, with people
discovering they were locked out of their twitter accounts and RAS before the
announcement was made.

~~~
skywhopper
It's a hard problem to solve, but given that many of the folks being dismissed
are engineers with elevated access to Twitter's data and services, it makes
sense from a security and privacy perspective to disable access first. There's
no good way to lay off 300 people at once. Hopefully Twitter actually follows
through on the separation package and job search assistance. That's far more
important.

~~~
rockstartower
Do former twitter engineers really need that much assistance in finding a new
job? I'd assume people will be clawing at them.

------
celticninja
> The world needs a strong Twitter

Really? Does it? I think Twitter needs a strong Twitter, shareholders need a
strong Twitter even Twitter employees need it. However the world is, at best,
ambivalent about Twitter, if it disappeared tomorrow a replacement would
spring up within a few weeks if the world really needed a way to shotgun their
messages into the ether.

~~~
dangerlibrary
A few automated trading algorithms would become marginally less effective.
Some poorly written ones might crash or make a few million dollars worth of
bad trades.

So, you know, there's that.

~~~
andyjohnson0
I don't know why the parent post is being downvoted: trading using Twitter
sentiment analysis is apparently a thing [1][2].

[1] [http://www.deltixlab.com/research/an-automated-trading-
strat...](http://www.deltixlab.com/research/an-automated-trading-strategy-
using-twitter-sentiment.html)

[2]
[http://cs229.stanford.edu/proj2011/TrusheimChakoumakosYendlu...](http://cs229.stanford.edu/proj2011/TrusheimChakoumakosYendluri-
Automated_Market_Sentiment_analysis_of_Twitter_for_Options_Trading.pdf)

Edit: typo

~~~
celticninja
there have even been a few instances shown on HN where these algorithms picked
stuff up from the internet and have run with it, i.e. placed real trades. I
remember at least 2 instances of this recently, once where the story was fake
and once where an earnings forecast(i think) was released on a site but they
had not published the URL so the assumption was no one would see it. The bot
made a significant sum on the second example.

~~~
justincormack
Many stories are deliberately faked to push the sentiment bots. Its a murky
world.

------
ghshephard
The number, 336, is roughly 10% of their employees - which is pretty much
exactly the number that Jack Welch recommended turning over each year to
improve the work force.

I often wonder whether these "layoffs" aren't actually layoffs, but simply
performance based assessments. It's not like Twitter is shutting down an
entire office, or abandoning some technology, and letting everyone associated
with that office/technology go - presumably they are being selective on other
factors as to who they let go - and I'm guessing that performance is likely a
key factor.

If, over the next year, twitter doesn't hire back that 10%, or hires employees
in different technologies/positions (I.E. Web developers instead of thick
client developers, sales people instead of developers, etc...) - then this is
a layoff. But, if headcount returns to the same number, in roughly the same
job areas, then this is just a performance based annual rank/yank process.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
This. I never understood this mentality that all cuts are bad or evil or
whatever. Funny, we never question when these companies go on a hiring spree.
No one asks, "Do they need this many engineers? Will these people have jobs in
two years?"

Restructures happen all the time, especially at dotcoms. If you work in this
industry, then you can expect some level of volatility.

~~~
icebraining
_No one asks, "Do they need this many engineers? Will these people have jobs
in two years?"_

Clearly you're missing @Pinboard from your life.

------
uptown
"we plan to part ways with up to 336 people from across the company. We are
doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person."

Bart might disagree:

[https://twitter.com/bartt/status/653946266938818561](https://twitter.com/bartt/status/653946266938818561)

~~~
adevine
Did you read his followup email? He said they called but he did not pick up.

Whenever you have a large layoff, it is fairly standard to lock accounts
immediately.

~~~
rudolf0
Exactly. For security reasons, you have no other option, even if it's rude.

~~~
kamaal
That's ok,

But the opposite should also be true. Don't scream 'disloyalty' when a
employee wants to leave on a short notice.

~~~
dredmorbius
There's likely a severance package, so pay will continue for a period (usually
at least two weeks, often several weeks per year of seniority). Not that this
blunts the message much.

And FWIW, I tend to agree with your comment regarding loyalty -- that ship
sailed long ago, 1980s, possibly 1970s.

~~~
developer1
For the employees affected, the "generous exit packages" is all that matters.
Do you know what I consider to be generous? 6 months of pay, no less. What did
they probably get? 4 weeks. It's disgusting to see this kind of language in an
email, when the employees are obviously being screwed beyond belief.

------
danso
> _The roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest
> impact. We launched the first of these experiences last week with Moments, a
> great beginning, and a bold peek into the future of how people will see what
> 's going on in the world._

That Moments is mentioned so high up in the email isn't particularly
reassuring...since it means they haven't launched many other initiatives of
note recently. Moments as a feature is extremely disappointing given the years
of interesting discoveries that Twitter has yielded algorithmically via its,
well, "Discover" tab. What's on Moments looks like a half-baked newspaper
front page except when you click on an item, you go to tweets about that item
instead of a full story.

I don't want to pile on the project as it is new...but it should've been given
more thought and design time given how much prominence "Moments" has on the
interface (it is one of four main icons on the menubar)...Nearly all of the
stories are hours old...e.g. "Wave of terror attacks hits Jerusalem" and
"Playboy covers up"..."FedEx truck splits in two", granted, is news to
me...but not something that makes Twitter unique to me.

There's so much more potential in the Trends section...OK, maybe Twitter wants
to filter out potentially visually NSFW topics like #NoBraDay...but things
like #MH17 and #VMworld and #ILoveYouAboutAsMuchAs...just show me an automated
feed of tweets by reputable sources (rather than spambots or random kids) so I
can understand why these topics are suddenly trending without having to click
through the trends tag and sort through a overwhelming timeline.

edit: that said, I like all the other products...besides core Twitter, Vine
and Periscope are standouts (at least, as a consumer)...I just think that
"Moments" isn't worth putting into the spotlight, unless there is literally
nothing else to be proud of publicly.

~~~
Touche
> What's on Moments looks like a half-baked newspaper front page except when
> you click on an item, you go to tweets about that item instead of a full
> story.

How? When I click on it, it just peaks at the next picture.

Moments is a glorified image slider.

~~~
danso
Hmm...on closer inspection, clicking on a Moments item does not seem to bring
up a timeline of "Top" tweets (as it does when you click on or search for a
"Trending" topic)...it seems to bring up a human-curated list of tweets.

Here is the "moment" for "Wave of terror attacks hits Jerusalem"...there's
only about 10 tweets there:

[https://twitter.com/i/moments/653855067158614017](https://twitter.com/i/moments/653855067158614017)

And here's a Twitter search for "terror attacks jerusalem"

[https://twitter.com/search?q=terror%20attacks%20jerusalem&sr...](https://twitter.com/search?q=terror%20attacks%20jerusalem&src=typd)

Though Fox News may not be everyone's choice of top news source, scrolling
down, you'll see a great variety of tweets...maybe not as efficiently
informative as the curated tweets, but I'm sure a hell of a lot more expansive
and scalable.

------
acaloiar
> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to
> give it to you straight.

Well, since you said it that way, I should assume that what comes next will
not sound like a steamy pile of meandering corporate speak, right?

> The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap
> for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are shaping up to be strong. The
> roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact.

A roadmap focused on high-impact experiences. Got it. I hope your firings go
really well, Bob.

~~~
adevine
He said he would give it to you straight, not ELI5. They are focusing on fewer
things that they believe are the most valuable, and stopping stuff that isn't
core to their purpose. What about this is confusing to you?

~~~
acaloiar
What you said is as near the definition of "giving it straight" as one might
expect to follow his preface. What he actually said is as near the definition
of corporate speak as possible. There is no confusion on my part. Perhaps Jack
is the one confused about what people mean by "corporate speak".

~~~
kamakazizuru
how would you have phrased it?

~~~
ceejayoz
"We're laying off up to 336 people, with the biggest impact to Product and
Engineering. We'll be providing generous exit packages and helping find new
jobs. Sorry. It's our fuckup, not yours."

------
ChrisLTD
"The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there."

Let's not get carried away here. Twitter is great. I use it too much of the
day. But the world hardly _needs_ Twitter.

~~~
wesleytodd
In fact, many places in the world did need twitter:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_Revolution)

~~~
amirmc
Reading that just indicates that the world needs _social media_ , not Twitter
per se. Many of the quotes there seem to indicate that Twitter's role was
exaggerated.

~~~
pdkl95
The world needs _the internet_ ; the specific software running at the
endpoints isn't particularly important. Twitter was used because... it was
already used by the people involved.

The benefit of any place or tool for social activities is only tangentially
related to the benefits provided by that place or tool. The value is the
_people_ that are using it, who can (and do) move all the time.

Anybody interested in the relationship between a service like twitter and the
people that _create it 's value_ by using it may be interested in the talk[1]
given by an admin o fark.com a few years ago, where they discuss how they
almost destroyed their community ("you'll get over it") from a failure to
remember _why_ people came to their site.

If there is one lesson that Twitter or any other social media business needs
to learn, it's the one discussed in talk: involve the people that use your
service at least _somewhat_ in the changes you make to the service, and
absolutely don't _surprise_ them with sudden change, or they will find some
other place to hang out.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnVeysllPDI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnVeysllPDI)
(language warning, if that matters (it's veyr mild))

~~~
the__prestige
> The world needs the _internet_ ; the specific software running at the
> endpoints isn't particularly important. Twitter was used because... it was
> already used by the people involved.

Hmm, the world needs _networked communication_ ; the specific protocol running
at the endpoints isn't particularly important. TCP/IP was used because... it
was already used by the people involved.

Further, the world needs _easy communication_ ; the specific mechanism to
communicate isn't particularly important. Networking was used because... it
was already used by the people involved.

------
MattBearman

      "Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to 
      give it to you straight."
    

Three paragraphs later...

    
    
      "So we have made an extremely tough decision: we plan to part ways with 
      up to 336 people from across the company."
    

Edit: My bad, I should have been clearer in what I meant. There isn't really
any corporate speak, but I wouldn't call 3 paragraphs of fluff 'giving it to
you straight'

~~~
blackaspen
It's not great, but it's certainly better than something like "We've decided
to move forward with a new strategic initiative that will involve a
synergistic restructuring of our organizations and in that process it's
possible that some people may find themselves seeking opportunities"...

~~~
robotnoises
Where I work, they called it a "workforce rebalancing," which I thought was a
nice touch.

~~~
smonff
Or " _plan social_ " in french.

------
dang
This was discussed pre-announcement at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10364197](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10364197).

------
antirez
> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to
> give it to you straight.

+

> We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use
> Twitter.

SYNTAX ERROR

~~~
itsybitsycoder
I like how he talks about the ex-employees as they are dead. Honouring the
memory of the lost by continuing to fight for the cause.

------
mrweasel
I'm a little surprised that they're only firing 336 people. Unless this is
just the first round of layoffs and more will follow once products and
management has been streamlined/trimmed whatever you want to call it.

~~~
abluecloud
That's nearly 10% of their work force.

~~~
mrweasel
I'll admit that I have no basis for this number, but I would expect them to
layoff 20 - 25%.

10% is a high number, but not for a company that has never made a profit and
is currently hemorrhaging money.

~~~
FilterSweep
This could just be round 1.

~~~
meatysnapper
There have been a number of little rounds since summer 2014.

------
ngoel36
This truly sucks - I'm sorry to hear that. If you're one of the unlucky
engineers that caught up in all this - reach out to the email address in my
profile. We're hiring tons of awesome engineers at Uber, and if that's not the
right fit for you I can help get you connected to other SF companies as well.

~~~
giarc
Spit balling an idea here for Site X.

-Twitter lays off a bunch of engineers.

-Twitter employees create job profile, with Twitter permission on Site X.

-Site X is accessible to other large tech companies looking for experienced engineers. Site X is a showcase of recently laid off employees filtered by layoff group (#368 employees, Twitter, Fall 2015).

\----

Pro's - other tech companies can locate talent without having to weed through
thousands of resumes.

-engineers can transition from one company to another quickly.

-Twitter shows support for "helping transition to another job."

\---

Con's - is this considered poaching?

-Do other companies want those engineers that got laid off? Are they considered low quality, or just were redundant?

~~~
kelseydh
Even if they were good engineers, the perception will be that they weren't as
a result of product progress being delayed.

~~~
giarc
True, however if you were head of HR for a tech company, would you rather take
a risk with a recent Twitter employee, or take a risk with applicants you
receive online? It would almost be like a pre-vetting process.

------
josefresco
The "moments" feature will be a failure. They're essentially building an
editorial model on top of Twitter - something they (as the platform creators)
shouldn't be worried with.

The decentralized model of Twitter's content creation is an asset. If you
group those into a more traditional top down model, you lose the uniqueness
and power of the Twitter platform.

~~~
stevesearer
I've been searching for a replacement to Circa News since it shut down and I'd
love if Twitter's Moments turned out to be something like that. Surface what
is happening around the world via social and then add the context of it with
editors and journalists for people not wanting to slog through social media
all day long.

------
xmpir
Why is this email on sec.gov?

~~~
dj-wonk
I'm guessing the fact that this email shows up on the SEC web site may have to
do with this:

> Per Chapter 4, Part 4, Sections 1400-1408 of the Labor Code, WARN protects
> employees, their families, and communities by requiring that employers give
> a 60-day notice to the affected employees and both state and local
> representatives prior to a plant closing or mass layoff.

[http://www.edd.ca.gov/jobs_and_training/Layoff_Services_WARN...](http://www.edd.ca.gov/jobs_and_training/Layoff_Services_WARN.htm)

~~~
moron4hire
No, that would have been put on the Department of Labor site.

~~~
dj-wonk
Good catch.

------
TheMagicHorsey
I'm seriously impressed by Twitter's service ... doing fan-out for so many
popular celebrities, so seamlessly, for so many readers is an accomplishment.

But I'm seriously curious why they have 4,000+ employees.

What in the hell are all those people doing?

300~ people being laid off is nothing. I wouldn't have been shocked if they
said they were laying off 1,000+ people. I think entire departments probably
need to go.

There has to be a lot of dead weight at Twitter.

------
petercooper
"[..] Engineering will move [..] faster with a smaller [..] team [..] we
[will] part ways with [..] 336 people. [..] with the utmost respect [..] the
world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there."

Or basically, Twitter is weaker with you in it.

------
GuiA
_> Let's take this time to express our gratitude to all of those who are
leaving us._

Gratitude in the form of not telling employees that they were laid off, and
letting them find out when they try to check their email in the morning? [0]

Fuck that noise.

[0]
[https://twitter.com/bartt/status/653946266938818561](https://twitter.com/bartt/status/653946266938818561)
\+ exact same thing happened to a good friend of mine who didn't tweet about
it + hearing reports of it happening to others

------
chipgap98
There seems to be a large disconnect in this thread between what is actually
corporate speak and avoiding being blunt and insensitive

------
Wintamute
Slightly OT, but honestly I think the world really doesn't need Twitter. If
you view the evolution of the internet as a phenomenon fundamentally linked to
the emergence of a global cultural consensus, or even consciousness, then to
reduce a sizable fraction of its bandwidth to 140 chars, vicious echochambers
and a communication mechanism custom designed to bump people's thoughts out-
of-context for the purposes of ridicule then Twitter should be viewed as
harmful. I hope some of these coming changes directly address the harm current
Twitter does to the quality of human communication on the net.

------
piratebroadcast
I wonder what this means for the Boston twitter offices (Crashlytics and
Bluefin Labs) - No mention of them, whereas Vine and Periscope are.

------
jackgavigan
Well, the stock's up 4.35% today.

That's roughly $2.7m per fired employee!

------
Kristine1975
TL;DR: We're making some changes to the company. We're firing the 336 of you
we don't need anymore. Thanks for your work.

Everything else is fluff. But I guess they have to sugar-coat it a bit with
"utmost respect" and "tough decision".

~~~
FireBeyond
But they'll honor their memory for the benefit of all Twitter users.

Whatever the hell that means...

------
vegancap
What's the reason for this e-mail being housed on a .gov TLD?

~~~
dj-wonk
> A WARN notification is required if more than 500 people (or 33% of the
> "active workforce") are being laid off. Check your state's Department of
> Labor (or whatever it is called in your state) to see the notices that have
> been filed by employees in your state. (from [http://www.job-
> hunt.org/layoffs/pending-layoff-signs.shtml](http://www.job-
> hunt.org/layoffs/pending-layoff-signs.shtml))

For California:
[http://www.edd.ca.gov/jobs_and_training/Layoff_Services_WARN...](http://www.edd.ca.gov/jobs_and_training/Layoff_Services_WARN.htm)

~~~
refurb
It's not a WARN notification, it's an SEC filing.

WARN wouldn't even apply here since the cutoff is 500 or 33% of active
workforce. Twitter's cuts are below both.

~~~
dj-wonk
Thanks for correcting me.

------
spikels
Revenue per employee is an interesting performance metric although not usually
applied to growth companies. Twitter's was growing fast relative to other big
public tech firms but still much lower than most.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/revenue-per-employee-
charts-a...](http://www.businessinsider.com/revenue-per-employee-charts-are-a-
fascinating-way-to-judge-the-health-of-tech-companies-2015-4)

------
moron4hire
Here's what "giving it straight" really looks like, while also having a chance
to save face:

    
    
        Everyone,
     
        As part of a restructuring of our workforce, we must layoff 336 people from across 
        the company.
    
        This is an extremely difficult decision. We believe this is a necessary step to put 
        our company on a stronger path towards growth. The team has been working around the 
        clock to produce streamlined roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are 
        shaping up to be strong. With the utmost respect for each and every person, Twitter 
        will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit 
        packages and help finding a new job.
     
        The roadmap is a plan to change how we work, and what we need to do that work. 
        Product and Engineering will make the most significant structural changes to 
        reflect our plan ahead, focused on the experiences which will have the greatest 
        impact. We feel strongly that Engineering will move much faster with a smaller and 
        nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce. And the rest 
        of the organization will be streamlined in parallel.
    
        Let's take this time to express our gratitude to all of those who are leaving us. 
        We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use Twitter. We 
        do so with a more purpose-built team, which we'll continue to build strength into 
        over time, as we are now enabled to reinvest in our most impactful priorities. As 
        always, please reach out to me directly with any ideas or questions.
     
        Jack
    

Notice I left out Moments, because I think it's in really poor form to mention
efforts made _before_ the layoff, with those 336 people, as being a part of
this new roadmap that includes laying off those 336 people. Really, really
poor move.

------
ducuboy
Focused on what exactly?

 _> We launched the first of these experiences last week with Moments, a great
beginning, and a bold peek into the future of how people will see what's going
on in the world._

Wonder what's next, because with Moments it feels like they still have no idea
what to do with this platform. It would be such a pity to turn Twitter into
TV-like manually curated breaking news channels.

------
leothekim
"up to 336" \-- that's a very specific number, suggesting this was somewhat
surgical. Most other leadership types are of the "any manager worth her salt
should be able to cut 10% of her staff, so do it". Layoffs are never easy, but
it sounds like Jack is doing his best make the right cuts and take care of
affected.

~~~
crpatino
> any manager worth her salt should be able to cut 10% of her staff, so do it.

And that's how every manager worth their salt learns to keep a bunch of dead
weight around, so they will in due time be able to offer a victim to the
dragon without a significant impact to her team.

That's why these draconian methods end up enticing the very behaviors they are
meant to prevent. You treat people like... not even animals, like inanimate
objects, and they will start to behave like inanimate objects themselves with
all the implications. That 3rd Law of Newton is such a lovely thing.

------
grandalf
When 80% of the promotional mail in my inbox is from Twitter trying to drive
engagement, something is going badly.

------
RyanMcGreal
> Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to
> give it to you straight.

[...]

> we plan to part ways with up to 336 people from across the company

Nothing says "give it to you straight" like using "part ways" to mean "you no
longer have a job".

~~~
nsxwolf
It's better than "rightsizing".

~~~
sirkneeland
or "streamlining"

or "must be accomplished within an appropriate financial envelope"

Or any other of Stephen Elop's greatest hits..

~~~
MichaelGG
The Twitter layoff uses "streamline": "the rest of the organization will be
streamlined in parallel."

------
ape4
I guess the message was a bit too long for a tweet.

~~~
irl_zebra
But, cf, this one:
[https://twitter.com/jack/status/651003315212300289](https://twitter.com/jack/status/651003315212300289)

------
mobileexpert
What about Twitter's none-core products? GNIP and Fabric (crashlytics and
Answers)

------
mahouse
>We launched the first of these experiences last week with Moments, a great
beginning, and a bold peek into the future of how people will see what's going
on in the world.

I am terrified about the future of Twitter.

------
oldmanjay
The sheer vulture-like behavior of recruiters around this event is a sight to
behold! Truly recruiting is the occupation for the shameless.

~~~
patio11
Speaking in personal capacity here rather than as CEO of a recruiting company:
isn't after you've just been fired or near-fired the best possible time ever
for a recruiter to try to give you a job offer? Most people need to work for a
living. Getting people without jobs good jobs seems to be the socially most
beneficial thing a recruiter could ever do.

What's the argument for waiting an hour? "I had a job for you but wanted to
give you some time to process how you're unemployed and cast out as
valueless?" Eff that. "You're awesome. Fault was with Twitter. Here's one of
your numerous options. If you need a few weeks before start date we can
totally do that but we're more than happy to fix your pressing issue today."
seems objectively better.

------
jhwhite
Maybe I'm a little self centered but this line:

> We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use
> Twitter.

seems a little pep talky to me for the people left.

I feel saying this would have been better:

> We will honor them with the utmost respect for each and every person.
> Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by
> providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job.

~~~
slowmotiony
Well, I lost my job and it's been really tough on the wife and kids, but at
least Twitter will do its best to serve all the people that use Twitter!

------
cubano
On the bright side, Twitter will only fire 140 people at a time, giving the
others time to prepare.

~~~
ch0wn
Cut the snark, this still affects real people's lives.

~~~
PMan74
Some of the most employable people in the current job market. Nobody likes
getting fired but it's not like they don't have great prospects.

~~~
ch0wn
You're thinking of engineers. Those make up ~45% of the workforce. Some of my
friends affected by this don't have recruiters queuing for them.

------
jjzieve
I feel like this could spark a massive bubble pop. I mean if investors have
lost confidence in a company with one of the largest user-bases in the world,
what does that say about all the startups that are valued so high and will
likely never make a dime, unless they're bought out.

------
kenko
"We are moving forward with a restructuring of our workforce so we can put our
company on a stronger path to grow. Emails like this are usually riddled with
corporate speak so I'm going to give it to you straight."

Riddled with corporate speak like ... the very first sentence.

------
tony_b
Good thing that his email about a roadmap for moving forward with a
restructuring for a nimbler team and an organization streamlined in parallel
as well as an invitation to reach out wasn't riddled with corporate speak the
way those emails usually are.

------
myth_buster
Tech community reaching out with job postings.

[https://twitter.com/cra/timelines/653925058600046592](https://twitter.com/cra/timelines/653925058600046592)

------
hartator
[https://about.twitter.com/careers/positions](https://about.twitter.com/careers/positions)
Still doing a lot of hirings.

------
ausjke
How many employees does it have? I recall it's about 4000 or so, so this is
like a 10% cut?

It's better to do a big axe once instead of slicing it gradually, will this be
it?

Been there done that, and it sucks.

~~~
codezero
It's being reported as 8% so pretty close.

------
jacques_chester
I think the engineers will be in a good position.

The rest, I'm not as sure.

~~~
vdnkh
>We feel strongly that Engineering will move much faster with a smaller and
nimbler team

What percentage of 336 cuts would produce a team that is smaller and nimbler,
I wonder? It sounds like engineers not on the "greatest impact" projects will
be cut.

------
DrNuke
Tbh twitter is pretty good professionally, if you follow the right people /
organisations in your field and write accordingly. Much better than spammy
Linkedin too.

------
perlpimp
not sure how related it is, but a few days ago twitter demanded to change my
password, after I changed it - they locked my account demanding that I would
provide a phone number to tie to the account, yet none of the numbers I
provided do work.

May I supposed they'll be even more focused on collection of various marketing
data from their users given how little leverage they have over user's personal
lives?

------
idibidiart
"Dorsey is no Jobs" sound very fitting now.

------
lfender6445
If anyone who's part of the layoff is looking for the opportunity to work from
home (ruby + javascript), let me know -- me [at] gmail.com

------
swalsh
If you're impacted, know ruby, want to make healthcare better, and are open to
a position in Boston let me know! email in profile.

~~~
joeblau
Growth hacking at it's finest.

------
fjordames
Oh god. My roommate was literally offered a position at their Boulder office
last week. I wonder how systemic cuts will be?

------
coderjames
A more focused Twitter is much needed if the company ever hopes to become
profitable, and not just remain a money pit.

------
moron4hire
Can someone explain to me how these places figure out that it's engineering's
fault for failing to figure out how to monetize passive aggression, 140
characters at a time?

I mean, if I were asking myself "why did we fail to achieve our expected
growth potential", am I going to blame the people who did what I told them to
do, or am I going to blame what I told them to do?

Well, clearly, if I'm an MBA, I'll blame the stupid proles.

~~~
sjg007
It's not the engineers fault. It is a statement that they need fewer people
going forward.

------
grandalf
This is great for the startup ecosystem because likely many of the engineers
are very talented.

------
whatok
Any info on whether this is just to appease shareholders or actual
redundancies?

~~~
justaman
I wouldnt think of it as being that black/white. However I do think this is a
<strong> move on Jack's part.

~~~
talmand
Until he runs for office and then it'll be in his negatives column.

------
ThomPete
Wait why did the subject change?

Isn't the correct headline the subject line of the email?

------
sjg007
It would have been better if it was a total of 124 characters.

------
gketuma
Does this mean Twitter Bootstrap 4.0 release will be delayed?

------
SneakerXZ
I feel sorry for people that were laid off but to be honest does Twitter need
4100 employees? I cannot imagine what all these people do for not such a
complicated product.

------
ComputerGuru
Wow, these aren't proofread by anyone?

 _> The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap
for Twitter,_

"to produce streamlined roadmap" Really?

~~~
ljk
I'm not sure what the typo is, care to explain?

~~~
ComputerGuru
Since "streamlined roadmap" is singular, it must be prefaced with an "a".

The correct phrase would be "to produce _a_ streamlined roadmap." (if it were
plural, you could instead use "to produce streamlined roadmap _s_.)

I'm normally _not_ a Grammar Nazi, but when you're talking about drafting a
short SEC filing that will be read by hundreds of thousands, declaring the
fate of 8% of your workforce... I think the least you can do is make it look
like you put some effort into it. Of course, my initial post has been
downvoted to hell, but such is life. I probably should have actually included
this explanation and disclaimer in my OP rather than expecting it to be self-
evident.

------
tarekkurdy
Forgets to remove the corporate speak.

------
mirap
Actually, this is really well written.

------
santialbo
Yesterday TWTR went down almost 7%.

------
smaili
If anyone who's part of the layoff is around SF and is looking for a new
opportunity, let me know -- me [at] smaili.org

------
vishalzone2002
any idea what is 336 as a percentage of their tech workforce?

~~~
shampine
From what everyone else in the thread has said and what Google states, about
10%.

------
cdelsolar
Message me if you've been impacted and want to join us at Leftronic!

------
curiousjorge
Have a feeling that Twitter is one of the uniocorns to go next year.

He's approaching this as a simple restructure & pray with engineering teams
when in fact the problem is a much more serious problem, there's a loss of
confidence in Twitter from investors.

I guess cutting when investors feel like it's due is a good way to appear like
you are making changes when in fact the problem with Twitter is much more deep
rooted and a fundamental flaw.

1) Investors realize twitter is horrible for monetization

2) Investors are out of patience or trust

3) Twitter scrambles to find a sustainable revenue source.

4) Twitter cuts off Hootsuite and launches competing business

5) Twitter's massive botnets disappear revealing only a small number of it's
userbase is active sparking SEC involvement.

~~~
sjg007
Yes but Twitter fits in within mainstream media. Facebook could take the
#hashtag business, but the pseudonymity of Twitter has general appeal. Doing
anything but advertising is a bad deal for either Facebook or Twitter. CPA is
really a bad deal for the platform.

------
foobarbecue
fewer

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10380365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10380365)
and marked it off-topic.

------
nanoojaboo
Dear Mr Jack, please do not cut my job. I have a wife and two kids and a big
mortgage. Thank you, NanooJaboo

------
signaler
As a hobbyist coding small projects like Twitter in my spare time, I feel
their pain and have consistently had to re-adjust the code base, and the
amount of project contributors. This is observable on the micro-scale, and I
would loathe to think how this plays out on the scale of Twitter, where
unbridled and unchecked scale was allowed to take over the company, causing
them to lose focus.

Twitter is essentially one big DevOps success story / failure after another,
and I have faith they can start to focus again. One motif / question I have
seen in every pundit's post about Twitter as a company is why the market (up
until now perhaps) has not decided Twitter's faith? If it really is the case
that Twitter is a big data company, then how come 90% (random estimate) of
their users are fembots / fake accounts?

------
smonff
IT world need a better class consciousness. The class struggle _isn 't_
something from the past. Twitter is one of the biggest company of the net
economy, and it actually _can_ fire 336 employees because " _the world needs a
strong Twitter_ ". How a big company like this one can be authorized to fire
people this way? Who employee are gonna react? Are they gonna fight?

Ok, we are not working at the mine, we are working on servers and data, and
concept and communication tools, comfortably sitten in white offices, but
these company makes a huge amount of money with our work and then will throw
employees like garbage? Noooo, this is not acceptable. Jack, do you think that
people will take your _generous exit package_ and feel fine: no, some will
experiment some difficulties to find a new job, some will divorce, some will
be obliged to sell what they build to survive, some will get depression
because of unemployment, some might even commit suicide. The price to pay for
this can't be equal to your exit packages.

There is a serious problem here. And we are not organized at all to fight
this. But workers could unite again. After all organizing a servers strike is
not that hard. I wonder why it don't happen.

 _Workers of the world, unite!_

