HACKER Q&A
📣 dakiol

Commit suicide (in terms of family time)


So, if you agree to work from the office and on “hardcore” mode, wouldn’t that imply that you are saying goodbye to your family in practical terms?

A simple back of the envelope calculation assuming that “hardcore” means 10h/day instead of the usual 8h/day:

- 10h/day at the office

- 25 min commute each way

- 8h/day of sleep

- 1h/day for chores (shower, dinner, breakfast)

That leaves you 4h/day to spend with your loved ones, plus weekends (unless “hardcore” also means working a little bit on Saturdays. Wouldn’t surprise me). And those 4h won’t be your best hours in the day (you would probably want to sit down at the couch). So anyone staying at Twitter would be committing suicide in terms of family and friends life.

I guess only people without family would consider staying.

Edit: my point here is not to criticise the employer who enforces these kind of practices (“it’s their company and they do whatever they want with it“), because I think that’s the easy path (in my opinion any employer who uses this kind of strategy is a dinosaur); my point is: what kind of employee accepts such a deal?! And we are not talking about any kind of employees here, we are talking about engineers working for (what used to be) one of the top software companies in the world. One may assume these kind of engineers can find work with better conditions anywhere.

  👤 MrWiffles Accepted Answer ✓
Anyone who expects employees to do that, for any amount of pay, is delusional and needs psychiatric treatment. Seriously. That dude is nuts. People like him aren't some entrepreneurial heroic archetype to be held up as a paragon of virtue worthy of celebration and emulation; they're a menace to society and should be heavily regulated, if not jailed outright, for weaponizing their enormous economic power to force people into slave-like labor conditions.

Doesn't matter if you're making $150,000 or $150,000,000 a year - no amount of money is worth 18 hours day, 7 days a week working conditions that this guy likely expects as a bare minimum.

👤 mikkergp
So when a worker missed a Tesla function for the birth of their child, Musk was about as understanding as you would expect. According to a new book, he said, “That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t.”

When employees complained about working too hard, Musk reportedly replied “they will get to see their families a lot when we go bankrupt.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/elon-musk-once-reprimanded-...

👤 aiisahik
As an engineer who used to be a lawyer, I can assure you that most big law firm partners (1) have families and (2) rarely see them. 10 hours days are normal. 12-14 hour days are hardcore. Some associates used to have portable beds in their offices so they can grab 2 hours of sleep if they really need it.
👤 SomeOtherJoe
Apparently, Musk expects up to 80 hours work per week at twitter, see https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-staff-expe...
👤 eps
> unless “hardcore” also means working a little bit on Saturdays

It likely means Saturdays and a little bit on Sundays.

👤 high_pathetic
Family aside how can anyone expected to be in any way productive in such mode? Mr. Musk sure does confuse people with machines, I don't see any other explanation.
👤 giantg2
I'd scale back the verbiage. If you're being compensated well, then the 2 extra hours a day isn't a big deal numbers-wise. If you feel like it sucks, then the numbers don't matter and you can look for something else.

I was once asked to work an extra hour per day if I wanted a promotion with a 7% raise. I turned it down.

👤 zeroonetwothree
Ok well don’t do it then. Seems pretty obvious. Musk isn’t the only employee in town.