To say that Elon Musk has had a turbulent fourth quarter in 2022 would be an understatement as he continues to face new challenges and find innovative ways to remain divisive in his capacity as Twitter’s new chief executive officer. Since purchasing the company for a record $44 billion in 2022, the landscape of the platform has been nothing short of chaotic as Musk declared war on Apple for gouging their advertising campaigns and allegedly continues to champion free speech as the new CEO. The public’s reaction to these events have ranged from the vindicated to the horrified, but in all the pageantry of the possible flame-out, there are human beings who are being forgotten in the chaos—what remains of Twitter’s staff.
Back in October, Musk’s deal to purchase the platform finally went through after months of back and forth in a “will he, won’t he” corporate dance. Once he became the CEO of Twitter, however, he immediately fired half of the staff, as well as CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal, and announced that that he would be championing free speech on the platform in a way that he alleged had not previously been done before.
It wasn’t long before Twitter engineers began coming forward about some of the changes Musk was making. One engineer, Eric Frohnhoefer, got into a public argument with Musk on Twitter, which culminated in Musk apparently firing him through a tweet—and it did not stop there. Musk went on to fire as many as 20 other engineers who had spoken out against his actions either publicly or on the platform’s internal Slack channels. To the remaining staff, Musk sent a company-wide email with vague implications that operations were about to get more difficult, and demands employees commit to working “long hours at high intensity,” or face termination.
Since purchasing the platform, Elon Musk continues to rot the corporate culture of Twitter from within. It’s horrific enough to have public feuds with employees and increasing demands on a reduced staff, but some of the latest reports regarding work conditions at Twitter are nothing short of disturbing. The BBC reported just yesterday they had received photos of Twitter office space that had been converted into actual bedrooms. The photo shared by the BBC showed a double bed and a dresser along with a pair of slippers. There was also a photo of couches at Twitter HQ being used as beds.
Scott Wiener, a California state senator commented to the BBC, “It’s clear that he doesn’t really care about people. He doesn’t care about the people who work for him.” The photos have prompted an investigation by the San Fransisco Department of Building Inspection into whether or not violations are being made. An official from the department told CBS News, “We need to make sure the building is being used as intended.”