Subsidised breakfast and lunch, free yoga classes, the reimbursement of a gym membership and the opportunity to work at a growing organisation in some of the world’s most intriguing places, including San Francisco, Dublin (I know, because I did) and Paris. Life as a Twitter employee can’t be too shabby. Can it?
Of course, these are some wonderful benefits, especially if you enjoy bending your legs behind your back in silence. Personally, i’m not a fan, but each to their own. However, I do like the idea of ‘raucous meetings’ and regular social events. Most fundamental for me though is the principle of sharing ideas, news and information between people and across borders, although not to the extent of Wikileaks. This is because it keeps companies and the elite on their toes and allows us to source products, services, jobs and advice we might not have seen before.
Twitter can’t be a bad place to work either because of the variety. Isn’t it inevitable that an employee will regularly meet and engage with different clients, work on varied tasks and maybe even travel to far flung places? Look at the current vacancies on offer too. Senior Android Editor, Account Executive, Legal Policy Associate, News and Politics Partnerships Manager in Spain among many others. This demonstrates that this is an organisation that wants to grow and expand into new horizons. The huge market that is China for example perhaps.
However, things can and have gone wrong. Earlier this year for example, the journalist Caroline Criado-Perez campaigned successfully to highlight the absence of female figures on UK notes. But she and supporters, including the Labour MP Stella Creasy, suffered from numerous threats, up to fifty an hour at one point. This resulted in accusations that Twitter didn’t take abuse seriously and a petition which over 50,000 people signed.
Personally, the previous view can be justified. Although there is now the opportunity to report individual tweets for spam and abuse on both PC and mobile, it is a rather laborious process. This is because the company wants to ensure that people with genuine and intriguing opinions are not silenced. But why can’t you automate elements of the process, just like Facebook?
This has been a bit of a PR nightmare for Twitter, not helped when the Head of News protected his account after Ms Criado-Perez tried to get in touch. In addition, it appears from the outside that it was a challenge to get any comment about the issue from an individual member of staff. There was an interview on Channel 4 News with the Head of Trust and Safety a while back, but it was as inspiring as watching paint dry. Is the safeguarding of individuals important to the company? A media company thinking that they’re not one was one the best descriptions of the affair I found.
But there’s great room for progression at Twitter, I just hope that get this significant problem sorted. It’s a wonderful resource I can’t do without now!
Content Assistant – Alex Blakey
