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Comment by klabb3 | Hacker News Reader

> Sometimes decent people have good reasons for working for bad execs.

Yep. Don’t forget immigration, that can be a big reason to stay. There was this famous pic of Elon with the some of the remaining Twitter staff and let’s just say they looked quite international. Obviously SV is multicultural and you shouldn’t assume individual traits from appearance, but, for a group it’s somewhat reasonable to assume a fair amount of H1B hostages with a huge incentive to stay, especially in the current economic climate.

Speaking as a former H1B holder.

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Oh yeah, totally. I recall one absolutely terrible place that was well-stocked with H1B holders because they would grimly put up with all the executive nonsense. They were not a talkative bunch, but I got the impression a number of them were just saving every dollar possible for a planned return home. Which I totally respected, but I still felt terrible for them.

Saying people "looked quite international" is prejudicial

You don't get a pass because Elon and Twitter happens to be involved.

It is very unlikely if upto has of Twitter 2000+ employees are "H1B hostages", but I doubt that will serve your purpose

Meh. I’ve worked in SF in another big tech corp. I know the demographics. I know many of those that are on H1Bs and as I said I’ve been myself. I also knew people at Twitter. It was less diverse than the big ones then, at least that was the image. The stereotype was more Equinox Soul Cycle white chic career women who live in the Marina, or something like that.

> I doubt that will serve your purpose

What purpose? I’m not coming from a culture war perspective in the slightest, but purely from his micro-/mismanagement of the company, and his treatment of employees, which I have learnt directly from his own words.

> is prejudicial

It is not. He made no negative assumptions about the people in question and did no harm to them.

What crap. You are implying “international” == “bad”. Like poor workers, likely to commit crimes, poor communicators, etc.

The opposite is true. The “internationals” in that photo have a strong reputation for interest and hard work in engineering and the sciences.

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