Elon Musk turns Twitter office into ‘hotel’ for employees to sleep on the job

The BBC has seen photos of Twitter office areas that have been converted into bedrooms, which San Francisco authorities are investigating as a possible violation of building regulations.

An image shows a bedroom with a double bed, including wardrobe and slippers.

A former employee said Twitter’s new boss, Elon Musk, has been staying at the headquarters since he bought the company.

Last month, he sent an email to all Twitter employees saying they “would need to be extremely hardcore [durões]” to have success.

The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection has confirmed that it is investigating possible violations following a complaint.

Musk said the city was attacking companies for providing beds for “tired employees”.

In a now-deleted tweet, Musk posted that he would work and sleep in the office “until the organization is adjusted”.

The BBC has also received pictures on Twitter of sofas being used as beds.

Another conference room has an alarm clock and a picture placed on a made-up bed.

“It looks like a hotel room,” said one former employee. They said that Musk sleeps regularly on Twitter in San Francisco.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

Last month, Musk – who completed his takeover of Twitter in October – sent an email to all company employees saying they would need to work “long hours at high intensity”.

“Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” he wrote.

California State Senator Scott Wiener told the BBC on Wednesday: “He is now making them [trabalhadores] sleep on Twitter. It’s clear he doesn’t really care about people. He doesn’t care about the people who work for him.”

An official from the Department of Building Inspection told CBS News in the US, “We need to make sure the building is being used for its intended purpose.”

In response to a journalist on Twitter, Musk wrote that the city should prioritize protecting children from the consequences of opioid misuse.

Forbes ran a story about “sad little sleeping quarters in a conference room at the company’s recently vacated headquarters,” noting that it was an apparent improvement on the makeshift sleeping bag arrangement on the floor posted on Twitter by an employee.

The rooms, Bloomberg reported, also accommodate employees from Tesla and other Musk-owned companies brought in to work at Twitter, “some of whom go to Twitter for work meetings,” sources told the publication.

Department of Building Inspection official Patrick Hannan told the San Francisco Chronicle that he investigated all complaints and that there were different rules for residential buildings, even those used for short-term stays.

In May 2020, prior to Musk’s takeover, Twitter had told employees they could work from home “forever” if they so chose, because its remote work measures during Covid restrictions had been successful. But last month, Musk said remote work would end.

This text was originally published here.