Niece has just lost her job as a direct result of Musk’s edict.

There is a bitter irony that the obviously "on the spectrum" Musk is dismantling the system which allows people such as him, among others, yo find their place, and prosper. Interesting also that Trump never worked as an employee, presumably even his wealthy Father was unable to buy him a job anywhere.

Arto1s

Tough “s**t”

Found the MAGAT.

That's interesting Silverbrooks. GCHQ do a code breaking quiz aged at young, neuro diverse people to try and get them into the industry as they have found those who are neuro diverse are better at code breaking.

I'm sorry about your niece Witzend. The world is a worrying place at the moment. Isn't it absolutely vulgar the money involved though?

The tech industry has benefited enormously from diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace.

People might like to read Steve Silberman’s Eurotribes about the number of people working in Silicon Valley who are neurodiverse and the special workplace adaptations that are made to provide a comfortable working environment.

This is from an article titled Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage by Robert D. Austin and Gary P. Pisano

John was unemployed for more than two years. Other companies he had talked with badly needed the skills he possessed. But he couldn’t make it through the hiring process. If you watched John for a while, you’d start to see why. He seems, well, different. He wears headphones all the time, and when people talk to him, he doesn’t look right at them. He leans over every 10 minutes or so to tighten his shoelaces; he can’t concentrate when they’re loose. When they’re tight, though, John is the department’s most productive employee. He is hardworking and never wants to take breaks. Although his assigned workplace “buddy” has finally persuaded him to do so, he doesn’t enjoy them. “John” is a composite of people whose privacy we wanted to protect—people with autism spectrum disorder. He is representative of participants in the programs of pioneering companies that have begun seeking out “neurodiverse” talent.

… although corporate programs have so far focused primarily on autistic people, it should be possible to extend them to people affected by dyspraxia (a neurologically based physical disorder), dyslexia, ADHD, social anxiety disorders, and other conditions. Many people with these disorders have higher-than-average abilities; research shows that some conditions, including autism and dyslexia, can bestow special skills in pattern recognition, memory, or mathematics. Yet those affected often struggle to fit the profiles sought by prospective employers.

Neurodiverse people frequently need workplace accommodations, such as headphones to prevent auditory overstimulation, to activate or maximally leverage their abilities. Sometimes they exhibit challenging eccentricities. In many cases the accommodations and challenges are manageable and the potential returns are great. But to realize the benefits, most companies would have to adjust their recruitment, selection, and career development policies to reflect a broader definition of talent.

Cossy

Elegran

Thanks for explanation.

What a charming character!

Best ignored.

I spent a large part of my working life in HR consultancy working for tech start ups.

The 'interesting' entrepreneur types who set up these businesses were often resistent to the introduction of DEI.
Always - and I mean ALWAYS - DEI improved productivity, innovation and profit. They always made for happier employees who stayed longer, worked harder and were proud to work for the company.

Anyone who knows anything about making money wants these initiatives.

The only reasons for removing them would be because to people who've had privilege equality feels like oppression.

25Avalon - DEI has destroyed meritocracy and people don't want it anymore. Plus it has hampered businesses and cost money.

DEI initiatives kick in only after competence has been proved so have no impact on meritocracy.

A 2024 poll by IPSOS and The Washington Post found that 6 out of 10 Americans think DEI initiatives are a good thing.

Research proves that DEI processes improve retention and employee satisfaction, make staff acquisition easier, enhance brand reputation and encourage innovation. Many businesses are able to demonstrate return on their investment because of this.

The people who benefit most from DEI processes are white women.

Elegran

Thanks for explanation.

What a charming character!

Climate change research will be the first casualty of cuts, it’s all very well predicting the affect of changes in climate, there is no evidence that we can control what is happening. We are bombarded with predictions of the consequences, the affect on food production, sea levels, polar bears or coral reefs, but are doing very little about actually changing the way we live.

Cossy

Arto1s

Tough “s**t”

What? What on earth does that mean?

It means the poster has no worries (yet) about losing his job, so he has no sympathy with anyone who has been thrown out of the window with no warning and no time to start finding another.

Musk's coding proteges have apparently found vast numbers of people still getting Social Security aged 150. They are whizzkids at coding, but they don't seem to know that it was a leftover bit of coding. If it didn't know someone's date of birth, it defaulted to 1975 - which was a reasonable default position at the time.

Thank God these greenhorns are not searching for the potential 2000 "millenium bug" at the moment - (surely that scenario is one of bits of history that are legendary in coding lectures?) They wouldn't recognise it if it jumped off the screen and bit them, so instead of finding and fixing the bug as did the anonymous and painstaking forensic checkers in 1999, they would have let is stay. The many organisations dependent on the software they checked would have first stopped operating as their systems froze and then been accused of fiddling the books.

(Of course maybe when Musk was informed of these super-elderly social security recipients, HE either didn't know of this default setting or reckoned that the rest of the population wouldn't know how it worked so it was Ok to use it as another stick to batter the government departments with)

Arto1s

Tough “s**t”

What? What on earth does that mean?

Certainly the damage Trump has already done to the US and is doing to global markets will already take years to put right. He is like Truss multiplied by a million.

fancythat

petra

fancythat

I am so sorry to hear that Witzend. It's a personal disaster, which when multiplied by all the other dismissals, will turn into an economic one for the USA. People on benefit cannot afford to spend, except on essentials. Economic growth will flatline and fall.

Depends if those people get jobs in the Private sector instead, I would say.
Or go into other Public service jobs where they can help say the USA some money.In one way or another.

How does the public sector make money?

I didnt explain myself very well.

As in, there are certain jobs where money can be "saved".
Such as a job where the person or team saves money from being spent. By cutting costs.

This is exactly what Trump told Musk to do. As we know there is waste in all government departments and the bigger the budget the bigger the waste.
The problem is, Musk took the instruction a tad too far 😱

MaizieD

^There is no where for these people to go to find jobs.^

I think you need to repeat that very loudly, imaround. There seems to be a lack of understanding of the implications of these job losses. Decimating public sector employment and cutting funds spent in the private sector does not lead to more private sector employment.

That’s what the tories did in the UK from 2010 onwards and it was not good. We’re still living with the consequences.

Very true.
And am sure the private sector are cutting employment to the bone, forcing the workers they have to keep to impossible schedules. That is how the private sector operates. It doesn’t hire more people, it hires less.

There is no where for these people to go to find jobs.

I think you need to repeat that very loudly, imaround. There seems to be a lack of understanding of the implications of these job losses. Decimating public sector employment and cutting funds spent in the private sector does not lead to more private sector employment.

That’s what the tories did in the UK from 2010 onwards and it was not good. We’re still living with the consequences.

fancythat

^I am so sorry to hear that Witzend. It's a personal disaster, which when multiplied by all the other dismissals, will turn into an economic one for the USA. People on benefit cannot afford to spend, except on essentials. Economic growth will flatline and fall.^

Depends if those people get jobs in the Private sector instead, I would say.
Or go into other Public service jobs where they can help say the USA some money.In one way or another.

If a person in the public sector, [all salary paid for by the government], then gets a job say in the oil industry, the government no longer pays their salary.

petra

fancythat

I am so sorry to hear that Witzend. It's a personal disaster, which when multiplied by all the other dismissals, will turn into an economic one for the USA. People on benefit cannot afford to spend, except on essentials. Economic growth will flatline and fall.

Depends if those people get jobs in the Private sector instead, I would say.
Or go into other Public service jobs where they can help say the USA some money.In one way or another.

How does the public sector make money?

I didnt explain myself very well.

As in, there are certain jobs where money can be "saved".
Such as a job where the person or team saves money from being spent. By cutting costs.

Your turn will come, Arty.

Tough “s**t”

The private sector is bleeding employees too. The government fired at least 200,000. United health (yes that one who just lost a CEO to a vigilante) announced today they are laying off 30,000.

This doesn't include the tens of thousands of people who lost jobs because government contracts were cancelled.

There is no where for these people to go to find jobs.

The last time these numbers of people were jobless, Trump added $4t to the deficit to keep them afloat through Covid.

The layoffs alone are going to cause a huge problem for the economy.

I also want to point out that more people voted for someone other than Trump then they did for Trump. This was not a majority of people. It was not a landslide. It was literally about 250,000 votes that got him across the finish line.

If the Green Party had not have ran to split the votes, Harris would have won.

Give the devil his due, Trump is doing what he said he would do and which he was voted in with a large majority to do. There will be more jobs in private industry such as oil and its related industries which will increase productivity and add to the GNP. DEI has destroyed meritocracy and people don't want it anymore. Plus it has hampered businesses and cost money. It's the big backlash as the pendulum swings and sadly there will be fall out.

Well he has already stayed he plans to investigate mental health and ADHD medicines and he wants to instead send people to farms to cure themselves through hard work.

He is anti-vax. The anti-vax movement in the US is huge right now. Measles outbreak in Texas, tuberculosis in Kansas. In a town near me, I saw 2 people ask about chicken pox in their kids.

These highly preventable diseases are making a comeback and the children are the worst affected.

I really feel like people have lost the plot.

It’s another zoonotic disease waiting to happen, isn't it? RFK Jnr as Health Secretary? What could possibly go wrong?

Yes, we do have bird flu. It has crossed over into cows and cats at this point. We really don't have a good idea of it in the public though due to the lack of communication and, now, employees at the CDC. The egg prices have always been about bird flu. But MAGA blames Biden.

Trump promised to lower prices of eggs on day 1! That it is why it is so ridiculous that the price has risen almost $2 in the last 4 weeks.

Our normal cost for a dozen eggs is typically closer to $3 a dozen.