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☆ Microsoft layoffs show that no tech company is safe to work at right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

On Wednesday, Amazon started its largest round of layoffs in company history after giving employees the heads up that they were coming two weeks earlier. I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and today, we dive into why all Big Tech employees are at risk of losing their jobs. Microsoft's layoffs proves that there is no such thing as a safe tech company to work at right now. The list of tech layoffs is long: Facebook, Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Salesforce, Microsoft, and more. The SVP of People Experience and Technology sent two missives on the first official days of Amazon layoffs.

☆ Twitter is bracing for further layoffs as Elon Musk shrinks the employee headcount to its lowest level in over a decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is seeing rolling layoffs despite Elon Musk's claims that he was done laying people off. Musk says Twitter is in dire financial straits. Layoffs are picking up again at Twitter about six weeks after Elon Musk told his new employees he was done with such actions. By the end of these cuts, the company could see its lowest headcount in over a decade. Employees are expecting that plans to close many international offices and several smaller offices in the U.S. will result in even more layoffs.

☆ Morning Bid: Ugly duckling
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Anshuman DagaWhile Chinese economic data didn't come in worse than markets had feared, investors still couldn't come to terms with the scale of the economic pain being felt in the world's second-largest economy. Asian stock markets dipped and the broad-based MSCI's Asia Pacific share index outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) retreated away from seven-month highs, and Chinese equities stocks also retreated. European and UK stock futures, however, pointed to a steady start. The FTSE 100 (.FTSE) is just a whisker away from its record high of 7,903.5 points. Tuesday's batch of economic data coming up include UK jobs numbers, German inflation and Germany's ZEW economic sentiment survey.

Twitter staff have spotted cockroaches in changing rooms and showers, sources told Insider. A representative for the company that owns the office building declined to comment. Staff at the office in Chelsea have seen cockroaches in the showers and a changing room at the facility, sources said. Twitter is the only direct leasee at the office building which is listed as a "Class B" building on CoStar, a commercial real estate database. Some staff at Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco have been sleeping in the office after Musk issued an ultimatum for staff to work "extremely hardcore."

☆ True, a budding social platform with $15 million in backing from Microsoft veteran Paul Maritz, takes aim at Facebook by rejecting user tracking and targeted ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

True is another newer entrant into the social media space, long dominated by Facebook and Twitter. Bret Cox and Paul Maritz want to prove that a social media platform can be a sustainable business without tracking and selling users' every online move. "It's not nearly as lucrative as targeted advertising, but it will be sustainable," Cox said. Although he admits True is something of an "experiment" in the world of social media. Do you work in social media or are you someone else with insight to share?

☆ Twitter is closing or getting kicked out of many international offices as Elon Musk skips rent and dramatically shrinks operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is leaving at least a dozen international offices due to closures or not paying rent. Elon Musk is closing many of its international Twitter offices as he continues to cut costs and try to find ways the company can make money. Twitter previously had more than two dozen international offices spanning nearly all regions of the world. The Singapore office, which first opened in 2015, even expanded last year, with more office space and engineers brought on to grow in the region. As for other international offices, most were smaller outposts for business operations, including engineering and ad sales.

☆ Amazon employees think the company is lowering the bar with a streamlined interview process
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This is Matt Weinberger, deputy editor of Insider's tech analysis team, filling in once again for your regular captain Diamond Naga Siu. Stop me if you've heard this one: Amazon walks into a bar... But seriously folks, my colleague Eugene Kim reports on a big, meaningful change in the online retail giant's hiring process. Some employees think so, Insider's Eugene Kim reports. He says that "current and former bar raisers I talked to were not too happy about this decision and were concerned about its potential to drag down Amazon's hiring bar."

☆ New year, new job? Experts break down if January really is the right time for a new role
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Many people consider their career goals for the year ahead and eagerly want to set off on the right foot," Gaelle Blake, head of permanent appointments at recruitment company Hays, told CNBC's Make It. At the same time, job listings tend to have a slower start to the year and increase as time goes on, Indeed's data showed. "Recruiter activity lags behind in the earlier weeks, before reaching a high level in late January and into February," Indeed's U.K. Economist Jack Kennedy told CNBC's Make It. But what does this mean for people trying to find a new job right now?

☆ Twitter is being sued for almost $400,000 by a marketing company after being accused of not paying its fees
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter is being sued for $392,239 after being accused by a marketing firm of not paying its fees. Canary Marketing, an agency based in San Francisco, is suing Twitter for $392,239.11, plus interest, for breaching its contract with the firm by not paying fees, according to a lawsuit filed on January 6. According to the suit, Canary Marketing provided merchandise to Twitter from June 2020 until August 2022 under an agreement that Twitter would pay for its services within 60 days of receiving an invoice. "Twitter appears to interpret the MSA [contract agreement] as allowing it to pay or not pay Canary invoices when Twitter decides to do so," the lawsuit alleged. Twitter and Canary Marketing did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside of normal business hours.

☆ A lawyer representing hundreds of laid-off Twitter staff has accused Elon Musk of trying to 'fleece' workers over severance pay
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A lawyer fighting Twitter said Elon Musk tried to "fleece" ex-workers with his offers of severance pay. This allegation has already been detailed in one of the four class-action lawsuits Liss-Riordan filed against the company in late 2022 on behalf of former Twitter employees. Musk himself had previously said that people who left the company would be given three months of severance. The former workers told Insider's Kali Hays that they were disappointed by the severance ultimately offered by Musk. "Musk's decision to fleece Twitter workers isn't just shameful – it's also going to be very costly," Liss-Riordan added.

☆ Frustrated former Twitter staff had to wait 2 months after being laid off to get their severance agreements. Twitter blamed the delay on staff suing the company.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Grace Dean | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Some Twitter staff who were laid off in November finally got their separation agreements on Saturday. When they did finally come through, Twitter blamed the delay on staff taking legal action related to their terminations. That suit was filed by plaintiffs including Emmanuel Cornet, who Twitter laid off in early November, and others who are officially being laid off this month and next. Some former Twitter workers told Insider's Kali Hays that they were disappointed by the severance the company ultimately offered them. Those benefits Twitter had offered before Musk's takeover included two months severance pay or more, along with other bonuses, according to the lawsuit.

☆ Twitter alternatives like Mastadon see downloads plunge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Downloads of the iOS app have grown 290,000% to 1.5 million since Oct. 24, with daily users up 660,000% to 321,000, according to Apptopia data.

☆ Twitter has had to tell staff its email about their severance agreement 'is not a phishing attempt' after many went straight to spam
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter has had to reassure laid-off staff that an email about severance agreements was genuine. Twitter said that the email "is not a phishing attempt" and warned it could be in spam folders. The email, viewed by Insider, was titled "Your Twitter Separation Agreement" and said former staff had been sent an email by CPT Group with the login needed to access their separation agreement online. CPT Group, which is based in Irvine, California, describes itself as a "leading provider of notice and settlement class action administration services." Twitter and CPT Group did not respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of normal working hours.

☆ A group of laid off Twitter employees finally got paltry severance agreements. Now they must decide whether to sign, or pursue legal action against Elon Musk's company.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After two months of waiting, laid off Twitter employees got severance agreements from Elon Musk. By comparison, laid off workers at Facebook received six months of severance when that company enacted mass layoffs in November. The website also uses Twitter's official blue and white bird logo and the official separation agreements are said to show Musk's signature. As for the separation agreements, they appear to be mostly boilerplate, offering one month of pay to laid off employees as severance. Such clauses are typical for severance agreements.

☆ A Malodorous Musk: Twitter employees beg for toilet paper and report a wafting stench on Slack as Elon Musk cuts back on office facilities staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The company's office in New York is without maintenance staff, leaving bathrooms uncleaned. Toilet paper is nowhere to be found in the office, said these people, who asked not to be identified discussing noxious topics. Meanwhile, Musk still requires nearly everyone to work in the office five days a week. In recent weeks, Musk has been reducing Twitter expenses more than many remaining employees expected, purportedly in an effort to save the company. One worker in the New York office said the lack of basic office necessities like toilet paper was "just bad" and further affecting already low morale at the company.

☆ Twitter is scrapping employees' meal allowances, following rumors that lavish lunches would be scaled back — but office snacks and coffee will remain, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk's Twitter is ending meal allowances for staff, according to Platformer's Zoë Schiffer. Twitter will still provide coffee and snacks, per Schiffer's tweet, which cited an internal email. As Insider's Kali Hays reported on Thursday, Musk has most recently cut a major fertility benefit for Twitter employees. The food options available for Twitter staff are one of the employees' perks which has taken a hit. Two freebies that are expected to stay are snacks and coffee, per Schiffer, who cited the internal email.

☆ Elon Musk, who has used fertility treatments to conceive most of his 10 children, just cut a major fertility benefit for Twitter employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The most recent is to a fertility benefit, coverage of which is now reduced by 50%. Musk has used fertility treatments to conceive most of his children. Elon Musk continues to cut costs at Twitter, with the latest move drastically reducing a benefit that helped employees with the cost of fertility treatments and adoption. The benefit is provided through a third party, Carrot, which last week emailed Twitter employees telling them of the change in coverage. Two former employees noted that the change will likely become part of the five lawsuits and group arbitrations that have been filed over Musk's treatment of Twitter employees.

☆ Elon Musk throws out Twitter's political advertising ban in a quest for revenue to save his floundering social media company
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk is lifting Twitter's ban on political ads. Billions are spent on political ads each year. Twitter will be "expanding" the amount of political advertising allowed on the platform and "relaxing" current rules around all "cause-based" advertising, the site's safety department said on Tuesday. TV advertising falls under the oversight of the Federal Communications Commission, which does not fact check any form of advertising, political or otherwise. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter at the end of October, the company's finances have deteriorated as brands and advertisers fled.

☆ Facebook lost several notable leaders in 2022, from Sheryl Sandberg to John Carmack, with more changes likely to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As Facebook began 2022 with a quiet reorganization, several executives and well-known leaders left the company. Along with executives leaving the company, Meta also laid off 11,000 employees, with even more cuts possible in the coming weeks. Sheryl SandbergSheryl Sandberg Facebook COO. Maria Angelidou-SmithAngelidou-Smith joined Meta in 2014 and spent five years as head of monetization for the Facebook app. When the company began to quietly reorganize and plan for layoffs in late summer, the Facebook app was not immune.

☆ Should you get creative with your resume? Experts decide whether you're more likely to land your dream job
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Morsa Images | Digitalvision | Getty ImagesWhen you're applying for your dream job, making your application stand out can be key. "It's tough to squeeze my life, experiences and skills into one, two pages, having stunning graphics can help convey my dedication and creativity much better than words would," she told CNBC's Make It. Two examples of company themed resumes, one for cosmetics company Lush and another for streaming service Netflix. However, she still thinks making creative resumes can be worth the time investment for some applicants. Professional resume writer Suzie Henriques, who is based in the U.K., told CNBC's Make It that a traditional approach is usually a safer bet.

☆ Elon Musk responds to Twitter's first widespread outage under his leadership by saying the platform is working for him
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter faced its first widespread outage under Elon Musk's leadership on Wednesday evening. Musk responded to the reports by tweeting: "Works for me." Twitter staff previously raised concerns about outages after Musk laid-off half the company's staff. Musk responded to some unaffected users discussing the reports, saying: "Works for me." Fears about such an outage began after Musk laid off around half of Twitter's 7,500 staff soon after he purchased the company.

☆ Elon Musk slams 'corporate journalism' over its response to the Twitter Files: 'Why is it rushing to defend the state instead of the people?'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk accused "corporate journalism" of failing to side with the people over the Twitter Files. Musk retweeted a Substack article that criticized CNN for a report that denied his accusations. Musk added: "Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?" FBI agents then sent emails to Twitter staff suggesting certain accounts be banned for spreading misinformation about issues such as election integrity, per the Twitter Files. But Musk and some freelance journalists are annoyed that the Twitter Files haven't received more support from the press.

☆ Elon Musk has warned in the past that Twitter could go bankrupt. Here's what would happen if it did.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Elon Musk has floated bankruptcy as a possibility for Twitter, but said this week costs are "under control." Twitter reportedly has roughly $13 billion in debt from a group of banks, with $1 billion annual interest payments. Musk has been in intense cost-cutting mode since his Twitter takeover became official on Oct. 27. That can create pressure on lenders to work with Musk to reorganize the debt, whether in court, or privately, experts said. Twitter, whose purchase was facilitated by elite backers including top venture capital firms and foreign investors, could face pressure from secured lenders to figure out a solution.

☆ Big Tech predictions for 2023: A rival for Twitter, Amazon deceleration, Google's AI wake-up call, Microsoft's serious game, cloud bills, and DTC decline
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Hugh Langley | Kali Hays | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The painful adjustments will ripple across the industry in 2023.Insider's Big Tech reporters share what to watch this coming year. At $44 billion, the debt-fueled deal was completed quickly at valuations from the frothy tech bull market of 2021. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe slow breakdown of Twitter under Musk appears to be upon us. Mastodon has experienced a major influx of users, hitting more than 5 million accounts after Musk took over Twitter. With intense tech antitrust scrutiny, these new services are unlikely to be gobbled up by Big Tech.

☆ Twitter alternatives that got traction after Elon Musk takeover are suddenly seeing downloads plunge. Which has staying power and who is the next Clubhouse?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Yet, it has maintained more than 500,000 daily users.

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