Elon Musk has been undertaking “crazy cost cutting” measures at Twitter. The remaining employees at San Francisco headquarters of the microblogging platform have begun bringing their own toilet paper to the “smelly office” after the company cut back on janitorial services, according to a report in New York Times (NYT). The layoffs came after the janitors went on strike for higher pay.
The lack of janitors has “left the office in disarray,” with bathrooms that have “grown dirty” and persistent odours of “leftover takeout food and body odour,” NYT said citing sources familiar with the situation.
According to the outlet, some employees are bringing their own toilet paper because there are no janitors on hand to replace supplies. “Chief Twit” is said to have crammed the employees onto two floors while closing down four others.
Other cost-cutting measures include Mr Musk’s decision to close one of Twitter’s data centres in Sacramento, California, despite employee concerns that it would harm the site’s performance.
The centre was one of three critical server facilities that kept the social network up and running. According to NYT, some expressed concern that losing the servers would cause problems, but were told that the priority was to save money.
Twitter has also asked its employees to work from home since the company has stopped paying rent entirely at its Seattle building. According to the report, the microblogging platform will most likely only have offices in New York City and San Francisco. However, the company is said to have skipped rent at its Bay Area headquarters and San Francisco office. Cleaners and security guards were also laid off at one of the company’s New York offices.
NYT said that Mr Musk’s “erratic and hands-on leadership style” has alienated some Twitter employees. He has also directed his subordinates to identify employees who have leaked information about the company’s operations to the media. The billionaire is reportedly attempting to cut $500 million in non-labour expenses from Twitter’s budget.
