A Mistake Not Even Elon Can Afford

No one reading this can possibly have escaped rumblings of the furore of the Twitter layoffs and everyone on LinkedIn seems to be discussing it so I won't repeat the background other than to say that within days of being acquired, Twitter has seen a wave of dismissal of seismic proportions in a seemingly ruthless execution style. The last time I wrote about Elon in these “HumanDebt by Elon Musk” and “Elon - the New King of Command and Controllers” I had some very polarised (and polarising) replies and comments so I’m bracing myself for the fan club to be very upset with me indeed but the reality is that this latest stunt is as reprehensible as it is irresponsible and if we don’t strongly condemn it, there’s no telling which other madman it may inspire.

Some people are trying to defend Elon perhaps in an effort to be different from the chorus of voices denouncing his actions regarding his people but surely they too must know that between the “Come back to the office or else” faux pas of a few months ago and last week’s Twitter massacre culling (from its horrifying execution to the way it is revealed as a blunder now), he has consigned himself to the history of the post-pandemic workplace as a horrendous example of how not to do things.

There are voices reacting to this who went to talk about “culture” and while I am the first one to point at it in general, this is not a culture nightmare story. Better culture wouldn’t have saved Twitter - in fact, the

#oneteam hashtags heartbreakingly trending on Friday demonstrated not only employee branding but possibly the existence of a much-beloved culture so it wasn’t lacking. They seemed tight, sold to the "bird" and full of beans towards their mission and their colleagues. What good was having all that in the face of an insane tyrant determined to step on bodies to build their grandiose dreams? None. And any company could be acquired and their hard-worked-on culture ends up being irrelevant so unless we somehow find a way to have everyone put people first from the bottom of their hearts and not as a PR exercise nothing is guaranteed.

Perhaps it’s time governments step up on the matter. They may have to apply the same justification as in the case of trade protection to check on corporates and prevent people from suffering - perhaps beyond employment laws, they need to start auditing how much care any one company puts into the wellbeing of their people truly and force them to do the right thing.