This is pretty unsurprising, they're not really going to raise any serious money from this (what do we reckon? 1FTE Salary at most?) but they've got office space for 7.5k people and less than 3k less. Musk keeps saying "If you code come to the 10th floor" - which basically implies that their entire team of engineers fit onto 1 floor of the building and that there a load of empty floors now that don't need kitchens or desks or chairs.
You'd be surprised. Some of that restaurant equipment is in high demand, and is also pretty pricey. Anything pro grade can be tens of thousands of dollars each.
Just some of those espresso machines are $10K [1] and $25K [2] each.
Can they let the homeless stay in the unused floors? Surely they can find a spot in their heart to help out people down on their luck during Christmas.
Just curious - do you house the homeless in the spare spaces in your dwelling? If not, how can you comment on what others ought to be doing and their hearts?
A lot of that stuff doesn't seem to be "office supplies". There's quite a lot of pro kitchen equipment in there. It looks as if they've broken down a big office canteen.
That's wild. It's untaxed comp that minimizes the time employees need to spend thinking about food during the day. He's mandating employees come back to the office for long hours, but now they need to (at least) order and receive their own lunches and dinners? If he's trying to retain some sort of high-intensity hardcore ninja startup bullshit, I would think free food would be the last thing cut. Or is he planning for them to subsist on nothing but soylent?
I've not been impressed by Musk, but this feels like the most boneheaded thing I've heard about his management yet.
> Also, politicians and other important public figures don't use Reddit like they use Twitter
I think that may change in the future. Many politicians, including prominent ones, have done AMAs. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a semi regular. The Sergeant Major of the US Army is a regular. Rick Astley is a semi regular. Verne Troyer was a regular before he died.
Yeah I think general consensus is that twitter was bloated and I'm guessing a lot of people were skimming by not doing much (or stuck doing things that amounted to not much).
Elon's methodology isn't the best way forward though. Ugh idk.
I worked at twitter's data engineering org in 2018. It was the most relaxed work culture I've experienced. Great WLB ( code for its ok to coast) .
Spent my winters working from ski resorts and ski lodges. My mental and physical health were at all time high.
The people seem to say despite the not new anymore slow & often-failing frontend. The old frontend is down regularly. Not sure why they don't drop it completely if the care so little about it's uptime.
This reminds of the .com crash days so much. There were endless auctions and sales of office furniture, etc. I don’t even think a lot of it got sold as demand was so low and supply so high. I heard stories of people buying chairs that cost $1k for $25, etc.
yeah remember when the herman miller aeron was the ultimate .com status symbol? After the bust you could find those on the side of the road for a while.
On that topic, the fridges and freezers currently have bids lower than the fucking tables, which is insane. Those are way worth way more than the current bids at 25 USD.
Edit: seems I misunderstood and it's just the opening bids, the bidding hasn't started yet. Still strange that the opening bids are higher for a table than restaurant-style fridges/freezers.
The opening bids on auctions are almost always meaningless and set very low - the auction company knows that the valuable items will be bid up fast enough, and they do NOT want anything left over because then they have to dispose of it.
Why some are 25 and some are 50 I'm not sure; they may raise the bid a bit on items they think might not get many bids.
If you have less offices you have less needs for corporate branding. If you were to consolidate all branding into the remaining offices it would take up too much space. You can not be sentimental about this stuff.
Right, but when it comes to their branding stuff, I would expect the company to either store it (if they have enough space somewhere) or move it straight to trash. Selling their corporate logos for 25 USD looks like they are being liquidated and closing the shop. I can't understand how someone even come up with such idea ...
If there is only one thing business and companies should be sentimental about is about their origins. No room for sentimental stuff when doing anything else. Twitter is employing humans and the end of the day, not robots.
Musk doesn't seem to believe in this version of Twitter and therefore has no issues dismantling it. There's still lots of damage done to Twitter the employer but I don't think it matters in the long run: there are always suckers who are willing to work for despotic leaders.
I'm not one of Elon's fans, trust me on that. But I do enjoy different perspectives to things.
And this sure seems like Elon doesn't give a f*ck about people, he's honestly trying to assemble the smallest team necessary to keep Twitter going, in whatever direction he wants it to go.
So yeah he's gotten a lot of criticism but I believe there's a different perspective here of a ruthless businessman just doing anything he wants to save his 44bn investment. Including downsizing it to the bare minimum, and then rewarding the people who stuck around and helped him through it.
I see it as a commitment to removing the old way of doing things, and starting fresh. Also it's common for companies to erect monuments to their own worship, but only once they've had lots of success and have money to burn. It isn't clear that the new twitter will succeed, and everyone knows it.
For those interested in buying but not in SF, you'll need to arrange your own pickup, craigslist style:
"Buyers may either pick up Goods at the designated auction site themselves or can contract with a third party agent to manage the removal process for them."
Yeah, this isn't eBay. Caveat emptor, as-is where-is, FOB where it sits, payment by wire only, be happy if you can load out yourself.
One would think there would be some times when the lots are open to inspection. It looks like bidding ends on Jan 17th, so there's plenty of time for them to add that.
these type of commercial auctions always offer a captive/partner transporter if you want that. i haven’t looked at the auction but presumably some of the items are large are require rigging and you’d generally use their partner.
> Additional Information Regarding Removal Procedures and Logistics Will Be Provided in January, 2023
The point is they didn’t need any couch there. Or could have gotten something comfortable from ikea and maybe wouldn’t have had to sell their company to Elon and had all this useless shit auctioned off.
Readit News
Just some of those espresso machines are $10K [1] and $25K [2] each.
Freezer is $24K.
Of course, all these are "new" prices.
[1] https://www.espressoparts.com/products/la-marzocco-linea-cla... [2] https://www.espressoparts.com/products/la-marzocco-strada-ee... [3] https://www.webstaurantstore.com/traulsen-rlt232dut-hhs-stai...
If there is a glut, sometimes you’d end up with just price per lb. (Often just a couple dollars per).
The cost of security, social services, policing, and hygiene related issues (it’s an office not a home) would seem substantial.
Some locals not far from me tried doing that with an abandoned hotel. It was a mess of crime drugs and etc in the end.
Any attempt to do something like you’re proposing in a nice space not explicitly setup for the purpose is going to go pretty badly quite quickly.
I've not been impressed by Musk, but this feels like the most boneheaded thing I've heard about his management yet.
Also, politicians and other important public figures don't use Reddit like they use Twitter.
Smart, Reddit is comfortable with the fact it’s a glorified web forum, Twitter lied to itself that it’s something more.
I think that may change in the future. Many politicians, including prominent ones, have done AMAs. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a semi regular. The Sergeant Major of the US Army is a regular. Rick Astley is a semi regular. Verne Troyer was a regular before he died.
Elon's methodology isn't the best way forward though. Ugh idk.
People keep saying this, but I'm yet to see the fire the smoke implies.
Based on what?
[0]https://www.theinformation.com/articles/reddits-ad-revenue-e...
That being said though, I would guess the employee count is still around ~2000 or less.
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https://www.bidspotter.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/heritage...
This auction is clearly not for just the _office_ supplies, but still.
Edit: seems I misunderstood and it's just the opening bids, the bidding hasn't started yet. Still strange that the opening bids are higher for a table than restaurant-style fridges/freezers.
Why some are 25 and some are 50 I'm not sure; they may raise the bid a bit on items they think might not get many bids.
Throwing them away would be more beneficial.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/12/02/elon-goat...
(ultimate ... infinite ... cringe)
And this sure seems like Elon doesn't give a f*ck about people, he's honestly trying to assemble the smallest team necessary to keep Twitter going, in whatever direction he wants it to go.
So yeah he's gotten a lot of criticism but I believe there's a different perspective here of a ruthless businessman just doing anything he wants to save his 44bn investment. Including downsizing it to the bare minimum, and then rewarding the people who stuck around and helped him through it.
"Buyers may either pick up Goods at the designated auction site themselves or can contract with a third party agent to manage the removal process for them."
One would think there would be some times when the lots are open to inspection. It looks like bidding ends on Jan 17th, so there's plenty of time for them to add that.
> Additional Information Regarding Removal Procedures and Logistics Will Be Provided in January, 2023
Twitter wasted money on shit that didn’t matter for years.
And those aren't even comfortable.