Elon Musk says Twitter office beds are for ‘tired employees’

December 7, 2022

Elon Musk defended Twitter’s controversial decision to install makeshift bedrooms at its offices on Tuesday night after San Francisco authorities indicated they were investigating a complaint about the move.

The tech billionaire fired back on Twitter in response to the investigation — tagging San Francisco Mayor London Breed in a post about a tragic child fentanyl overdose even as he defended Twitter’s new “bedrooms” as merely an effort to help “tired employees” at the company.

“So city of SF attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl,” Musk tweeted. “Where are your priorities @LondonBreed!?”

Twitter faced intense scrutiny after reports surfaced that Musk had converted empty offices and conference rooms into rest areas – complete with mattresses and bedside tables.

Within hours of the reports, San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection confirmed they were examining whether the bedrooms violated city regulations.

Twitter headquarters is located in San Francisco.

A representative for San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection said officials needed “to make sure the building is being used as intended.”

“There are different building code requirements for residential buildings, including those being used for short-term stays,” department spokesperson Patrick Hannan said in a statement. “Everyone in San Francisco deserves a safe place to live, work, play and sleep, and no one is above the law.”

Musk is pushing Twitter’s remaining employees to embrace a “hardcore” work culture as he attempts to remake the social media site. Last month, the billionaire sent an email in which workers who survived a major round of layoffs to “opt in” to his plan or leave the company.

Elon Musk is reportedly pushing a hardcore work culture at Twitter.

Forbes, which first reported on the bedrooms, said they were “sleeping quarters reminiscent of sad hotel rooms,” with “unmade mattresses, drab curtains and giant conference-room telepresence monitors.”

The outlet described one room as having a queen-sized bed, a wooden bedside table and bright orange carpeting. One source said there were “four to eight per floor” and grumbled that the bedrooms were “not a good look.”

“It’s yet another unspoken sign of disrespect. There is no discussion. Just like, beds showed up,” the source told Forbes.

A separate report from Insider said “dozens” of empty offices had been converted into bedrooms. Sources said the rooms are mostly being used by members of Musk’s transition team at Twitter – which includes employees from his other companies Tesla and The Boring Company – as well as staffers who traveled from out of town.

Jared Birchall, one of Musk’s closest advisers, has reportedly claimed one of the rooms.

As The Post reported in November, Twitter employee Esther Crawford was previously photographed while resting in a sleeping bag at the company’s offices. The picture surfaced as Musk pushed tight deadlines for his overhauled “Twitter Blue” subscription service.

“When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork,” Crawford tweeted at the time.