Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently said he has been “cutting costs like crazy” since taking over the company. Employees are smelling the results.
Speaking in a Spaces Twitter chat on December 20, Musk said, “This company is like, basically, you’re in a plane headed for the ground at high speed with the engine on fire and the controls not working.”
Among his drastic cost-cutting measures, Musk canceled janitorial services this month at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, according to New York Times. Combined with workers packed into two floors after the fourth closed, one result was the smell of leftover food and body odor lingering in the air.
What’s more, the bathroom has become dirty, and some employees have brought their own rolls of toilet paper to work.
Earlier this month, a janitor said he had been locked out of Twitter headquarters without warning, after demanding better wages and the company reportedly cutting his cleaning contract.
One janitor, speaking to the BBC, said he had worked at Twitter for 10 years and had been told by Musk’s team that eventually his job would be gone because robots would replace human cleaners.
“You know it smells crazy in there,” a source said toward New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, referring to Twitter headquarters.
fortune reached out to Twitter for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.
Musk’s Twitter mistake
Musk admitted to making some mistakes in cost cutting while speaking in the Spaces Twitter chat. For example, he said, “We may have gone too far in reducing the cost of lunch. We may have overcorrected in this regard.
And he admitted another mistake in his messy Twitter fix. For example, the company suspended the account of respected venture capitalist Paul Graham, who has supported Musk’s efforts on Twitter, because Graham wrote about a link on his website to the account of Mastodon, a platform that many see as an alternative to Twitter. The suspension follows the company’s introduction of a short-term policy that says links to competing social networks will not be allowed.
“Yes, it was wrong,” Musk admitted.
Whether they will consider the deteriorating hygiene at Twitter headquarters, another mistake remains to be seen.
Meanwhile not only the main office in San Francisco. According to multiplejanitorial services have also been cut in the company’s Seattle office, where employees also bring their own rolls of toilet paper.
In November, Musk gave Twitter employees an ultimatum: Embrace the culture of hard work or take severance and leave the company. Those who want to get out now may be glad they did.
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