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simsa04 (simsa04@gnusocial.net)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Nov-2022 00:12:10 JST simsa04 Casey Newton & Zoë Schiffer, "Why some tech CEOs are rooting for Musk" https://www.platformer.news/p/why-some-tech-ceos-are-rooting-for
« If you’re an executive who has grown increasingly frustrated by the work culture of the past half-decade or so [...] Musk’s sledgehammer tactics must feel like a balm. These leaders only fantasized about firing their most vocal internal critics; Musk went out and did it. Often without even knowing what job those workers did! [...]
And if it doesn’t work? Musk’s management style seems likely to prove influential anyway. Some tech executives have long sought an excuse to begin unwinding some of the leverage that their workforce gained in the roaring 2010s. As the economy weakens, Musk’s full-throated embrace of austerity measures may have given them one. »
[Painting the dynamic as one of "robber barons" against "woke left" seems naive. Not just for the simplistic historical approach but for the omission that tech firms embraced this "white-male-woke-fun workplace culture" for a reason: maximzing profits. In earlier times CEOs turned to "management by birthday party", now they may again embrace "management by terror", but the goal stays the same.
Furthermore, the article doesn't take into account that a CEO loses a company's edge when he turns to the latter style as a hierarchical company stiffles creativity. Returning to a 1960s IBM company culture seems ludicrous given how many tech companies went bust because of this approach.]