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Elon Musk, like other tech peers, is wary of middle managers.

Growing up, I watched my dad cycle through several careers, from being a distributor of polyvinyl flooring to an independent bookseller. He called himself a salesman but Ive always thought his greatest job skill was managing a sales team, which he did for several global carpet companies. On car trips, wed listen to him reassure Helena, joke with Bob, debate tactics with Stan, and quote Winston Churchill to cheer up Mel. Textile tycoon Roger Milliken was celebrated as the boss whod tried to best Des Brady in a quote battle. At night, Id fall asleep to the sound of him telling my mom stories about the quirks and characters of office life.

With his dry Scottish wit and vague distrust of authority, my father wasnt what youd call a Company Man. The words private beach were practically marching orders to trespass. But his curiosity, competitive spirit and desire to help people get where they wanted to go made him a great manager.

Middle management is a tough place to be these days. Long before the pandemic even started, they were the unhappiest employees in most companies. Now, they have to deal with layoffs, tighter budgets, and pressure to meet their numbers while attending to the emotional wellbeing of people who may still be working from their bedrooms. Oh, and their boss thinks a bot could do their job.

I believe in the value of the middle manager, as do management thinkers like McKinseys Bill Schaninger, who believes theyre critical in driving large-scale organizational change. He is co-authoring a new book on the topic that will be out this summer and will be speaking at our upcoming Future of Work Summit on June 1st the day after hell be retiring from McKinsey to start his new adventure. In a recent article, Schaninger and colleagues argue that middle managers are less a symptom of bureaucracy than victims of it.

Managers are an especially vulnerable species in Silicon Valley, where startups often fumble from Lord-of-the-Flies-like chaos to plush seating and a plethora of cool new titles once the money comes in. (Time Ninja, youll be across the hall from our Dream Alchemist and Chief Happiness Engineer.) When the headwinds come, those who measure excellence in lines of code might look at that middle layer as a cost center to cut.

Exhibit A is Metas Mark Zuckerberg, who declared 2023 to be a Year of Efficiency a telling signal when the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp already laid off 11,000 people the year before. Indeed, the company plans to close 5,000 open roles this year and lay off an additional 10,000 people, possibly starting today.

In a Q&A with employees earlier this year, reported in Command Line, Zuckerberg said, "I don't think you want a management structure that's just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work."

That sounds like a Dystopian nightmare, or a sign that the Meta CEO may not be clear on what a number of his people actually do. Then again, this is a leader who equates being well understood with complacency, which cant have helped morale.

The same could be said of Elon Musk, who came into Twitter, tweeting that there seem to be 10 people managing for every one person coding.

Was the new Twitter CEO confusing functions like sales or, say, compliance with management? Possibly. He tends to recognize excellence in a form that reminds him of himself, which may explain why he says its hard to find people to delegate to. Musk also believes every manager should have the technical skills of the people they manage, even though studies suggest training in leadership skills may be more important. Certainly, middle managers are not to blame for the outages, misinformation, eroding value and general chaos at Twitter in recent months. If anything, the platform could use more good managers.

Instead, at Twitter and elsewhere, their numbers are likely to dwindle. Salesforce, Google and Amazon have also targeted middle management as areas to cut. In some ways, that makes sense. But lets distinguish between those who manage people and administrators whose functions add layers of bureaucracy. (Senior contributor William Baldwin lays out the compelling case to slash the ranks of administrators at Harvard.)

Great middle managers are the carriers of culture, the motivators of people, the agents of change. People tend to quit their boss, not their job, which makes nurturing better bosses a meaningful factor in a company's success.

During the last chapter of my dads career, he managed an independent bookstore with one employee and some occasional interns. He loved books but not that much. He seemed happiest when showing my son how to repair old books, dispensing life advice to the young woman working the cash register, or marching as Mr. Pickwick in the town parade. Like a lot of great middle managers, he was a teacher, a mentor and a coach. We could all use more of those right now, especially as technology transforms how we work.

Read the rest here:

Why Mark Zuckerberg And Elon Musk Fire Their Most Valuable People - Forbes

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

In a piece of news that will shock nobody who thinks about things for longer than half a second, it seems Elon Musks attempts to reshape Twitter in his image have gone a little too well, with the website fast becoming just as much an embarrassment as he is. The most recent gaffe made by the social media giant, which has been under Musks stewardship (in the loosest sense of the term) for a few months now, saw a parody Disney Junior account given a gold checkmark before the very same account went on to post a bunch of racial slurs and other offensive language. Just your average day on the new, improved Twitter, then.

Although the account @DisneyJuniorUK has finally been suspended, the issue is far from being swept under the rug. Variety reported that a source confirmed Disney was aware of the account since late last night U.S. time, and had reached out to Twitter to ask them to resolve the issue. If thats the case, it took hours for the checkmark to be removed, which isnt a good sign if you work at Twitter and are trying to be taken seriously.

While the account was still live and verified, it had a pinned tweet stating: #FuckThatN****Elon, #KasherQuon and #MeowskullFeetFreaks. The original tweet did not censor the n-word.

Taking a look at the accounts follower numbers and content, it was fairly obvious that it was a joke, with one of its tweets mentioning that famously profane shows South Park and Family Guy would soon be available on Disney Junior. This makes its accreditation even more of a gaffe from the new Twitter team in a week that has already seen Musk having to embarrassingly back down over making certain celebrities pay for a blue checkmark and his latest SpaceX launch not exactly going to plan. Sometimes, it seems the universe does have a great sense of humor.

Another hilarious part of this tale is that the real Disney Junior U.K. ceased to exist almost three years ago, alongside its social media presence something that 10 seconds of research would have unearthed. It seems theyre not hiring the best and brightest at Twitter, recently. When you also take into account that the gold verification badges cost $1,000 per month, yet this parody received one for free, it really goes to show just how inept Musks new system is. Like many wealthy folks, he seems to have insulated himself with yes-men, allowing his already huge ego to further expand even as all the evidence points to him being completely out of his depth. But at least were getting a laugh out of it, even though it will certainly lead to a massive rise in dangerous disinformation.

Even the owner of the parody Disney Junior account was shocked at their golden checkmark!

The only real saving grace for whoever is in charge of verification on Twitter (which, at this point, may be Musk himself, considering how much of a thin-skinned control freak he is) is that the account at least used the official logo for the Disney Junior profile page. That real account (based in the U.S. and still active, unlike the U.K. account) has tens of thousands of followers, and a button linking to the main Disney Twitter account. It also has a gold checkmark, but at least that one is correctly assigned.

Musk has come under a lot of fire since abolishing the previous verification system. Previously, verification was awarded via an opaque process that nobody outside of the company could really define, which many felt meant it was open to abuse. Part of Musks reasoning for his change was his self-positioning as a warrior for free speech, unless, of course, that speech is being mean about the fact Musk is a nepo baby of the highest order or is just generally something he doesnt like. Musk has claimed that the $8 fee for a checkmark is more egalitarian, but so far, most users arent really agreeing with his assessment, and neither is the evidence.

Despite thousands pointing out the error in Musks plans, he went through with them last winter, and the site quickly descended into a real Wild West. Pranksters even managed to wipe billions off of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lillys stock price by impersonating the company online and pretending the business would be giving out insulin for free (something were not exactly against, or that sad about, to be honest). Other newsworthy impersonations included a fake Chiquita bananas account, which tweeted about the brutal civil wars the banana company funded and encouraged in Central America, and a Tesla parody account that made fun of Musks electric self-driving cars for being unsafe and often being recalled. Were sure advertisers, Twitters real main source of income, are delighted at all of this.

Of course, the more conspiracy-minded might see this as an attempt by Musk to cause damage to Disney, who is currently in a heated battle with Ron DeSantis. While Musk claims to be a centrist, he consistently posts right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories, and given how unhinged his already strange behavior has become, it wouldnt be the biggest surprise that hes decided Disney is an enemy. Its also telling that this is an election year, and he seems more than happy to let Twitter become more of a den of misinformation than it already was.

That last point is just pure speculation, though. Its likely that this issue, like most of Twitters recent problems, is down to sheer incompetence at a leadership level so Musks fault in a sense, but a much less ominous one. All in all, its been a bad week for the South African emerald heir, to say the least, and this Disney Junior nonsense is the moldy icing on a stale cake. Long may it continue.

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Elon Musk Messes With the Mouse by Giving Fake Disney Account ... - We Got This Covered

Tesla will have a delivery event for its long-delayed Cybertruck in the third quarter of 2023, Elon Musk said during an earnings call with investors Wednesday.

After more than three years since its initial announcement, Cybertruck production is expected to start this summer though Musk has said that volume production wont begin until next year.

It takes time to get the manufacturing line going, and this is really a very radical product, Musk said Wednesday. Its not made in the way that other cars are made.

Asked for updated specs, such as range or unique features, Musk demurred, noting that those details would be revealed during the hand-off event.

One thing I am confident of saying is that its an incredible product, Musk said. Its a Hall of Famer.

One of the main reasons for the delay may be the companys decision to make the Cybertruck out of stainless steel, which costs more than steel typically used in auto manufacturing. It cant be stamped into fenders and other parts thanks to its tendency to spring back into its original shape. And it requires special welding techniques all of which have made the Cybertruck production more complicated than Teslas other vehicles.

Even less crucial parts, like windshield wipers, need to be custom-made thanks to the Cybertrucks unique design.

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Elon Musk announces Tesla Cybertruck delivery event in third ... - The Verge