San Francisco Authorities Take Action Against Musk's Sleeping Beds at Twitter HQ

Back in November 2022, shortly after Musk had just acquired Twitter, images of Twitter employees laying in sleeping bags at the headquarters went viral, giving the impression that they put in more than a 12-hour shift.

According to Entrepreneur, a coworker took a picture of Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, tucked in a sleeping bag and tweeted it with the caption, "When you need something from your boss at Elon Twitter."

In response to those who viewed the act as proof of work dedication, the employee tweeted the following: "We are #OneTeam and we use the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork to show it, which is why I retweeted with #SleepWhereYouWork.". SF authorities took notice of this and have recently taken some actions.

No More Sleeping at Twitter HQ

Twitter's San Francisco headquarters HQ recently received a correction notice from the city's Department of Building Inspection. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the notice demands conference rooms are labeled as sleeping areas in the floor plan or be returned to their original office use within 15 days. The notice was issued following an investigation prompted by complaints of employees sleeping in the office.

In November 2022, Musk fired half of Twitter's 7,500 full-time employees in less than three weeks after taking over the position, and that was not even the harshest part.

Musk also sent an email to Twitter's remaining employees the following day. In it, he said that Twitter is mostly a software and server company and asked them to decide by Thursday evening if they wanted to stay with the company.

The new Chief Twit said that workers must be "extremely hardcore" to make "Twitter 2.0" a success, which entails longer working hours (which translated to Musk installing beds in the headquarters as a new initiative to provide a more flexible working environment). Now, the SF Department of Building Inspection smells smoke.

According to reports, the beds may be considered to be in violation of city standards if used as full-time residences. Twitter might have to pay fines for not having the right permit, but this hasn't been decided yet.

What's Next?

Employees will still be permitted to sleep in the office despite the correction notice after some modifications to the sleeping arrangements, as reported by Gizmodo. The safety features in the bed areas seem to be in line with what San Francisco authorities would consider.

Not the sleeping arrangements but rather a lawsuit filed by the company's landlord over allegedly late rent payments is currently the company's biggest problem. This is just one of many legal issues that Twitter is currently dealing with.

The Guardian tells us that Twitter's failure to pay rent on its offices has led to lawsuits from landlords in San Francisco and London. This lawsuit comes as Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, reportedly employs extreme cost-cutting measures, such as just not footing the bill.

In the middle of January, Twitter was sued in the UK capital's high court by the crown estate in London, which looks after King Charles III's property.