Elon Musk's management style: Some call it effective, others call it toxic
To make his newest acquisition Twitter profitable, some workers are sleeping in their offices; Musk has tweeted that he sleeps in company library. How healthy is this?
The world’s richest man Elon Musk’s dreams for Twitter may or may nor revive the fortunes of the social media company, but they sure are putting its employees under immense pressure.
According to observers as well as Twitter employees themselves, Musk’s management style resembles a feudal, dehumanised view that people are just machines in the workplace. This has reportedly made his employees a disgruntled and unhappy lot. So much so that they have taken to posting anonymously on networking site Blind, warning people not to join Twitter and to stay away from the company’s “cut-throat culture”.
Some reviewers have described the work culture at Twitter after Musk has taken over as ‘toxic’. “Don’t come here if you value well-being or a safe workplace,” said one reviewer, while another said Twitter is a “sinking ship with Elon Musk”.
Also read: How Elon Musk’s ruthless layoffs, summary firings paint him as an employer
One reviewer said on the site: “Overworked with extreme hours, always on PIP (performance improvement plan) and threatened to get fired, supervised by under-qualified engineers, no credit for work, no decision-making power.” Another complained about the lack of work life balance, which is not great after Musk’s acquisition.
One listed the pros as the ability to work on many high impact projects with influence, while under cons, the reviewer said good work life balance is nonexistent and hours are not worth it. “Twitter 1.0 was cool, but the new one — if you can work elsewhere just go there,” posted another reviewer.
When morale sank
It was not always like this. Twitter had been an amazing company with a “welcoming culture” once upon a time, said employees in a news report. But all that changed when Musk took over walking into the company carrying a sink in his hands. And, within days of taking over, he sacked top executives and half of the company’s 7500 employees.
Musk discontinued the work-from-home culture in the Twitter office and even set up bedrooms in Twitter offices expecting employees to work round the clock.
On November 16, he sent an email to his employees at 2 am in the morning. Basically, he issued an ultimatum to his remaining staff asking them to sign up to his “Twitter 2.0” vision and “work long hours at high intensity” or quit.
Also read: Twitter may face bankruptcy, Elon Musk warns employees: Report
The employees should commit to being “extremely hardcore” or leave the company, he wrote in an email which had the subject line — “A fork in the road.” Musk cracked the whip saying the employees should commit to rebuild the company and have to work long hours at high intensity. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” he had declared.
Some workers reportedly ended up sleeping in their offices, while Musk tweeted that he slept in the Twitter library.
Musk has his fans
Twitter’s new boss has his share of fans. They argue that tough times call for tough actions, and Musk is just taking them. He is no armchair executive, and practises what he preaches by being in the office 24×7, they argue. For his supporters, Musk stands for Corporate America and its success story.
His critics, however, say Musk’s cold and impersonal approach to management and leadership are totally against the years of workplace research which has shown that the employees’ emotional and physical well being are critical and key to an organisation’s success. To them, Musk seems to be ignoring all these basic tenets of a good workplace culture and giving short-shrift to being more humane and empathetic towards his employees.
Musk seems to be refashioning workplace culture which may backfire on him in the long run. An article in The Conversation said resurrecting archaic lessons that treat employees like inanimate objects will surely see an increase in worker-led organisation efforts. It went on to cite the example of the latest efforts towards unionisation by the employees at other tech companies like Amazon and Apple. But, will Musk stop to listen?
