Twitter staff forced to provide own toilet paper at ‘smelly offices’ after Elon Musk fired janitors

‘BYOTP! Lol, it was true for half a day’

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Friday 30 December 2022 18:35 EST
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Elon Musk clashes with journalists in Twitter Spaces before disabling audio service

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Twitter staff have been forced to bring their own toilet paper into “smelly offices” after Elon Musk fired the company’s janitorial staff, says a report.

The billionaire has got rid of cleaning staff at Twitter’s New York offices and cancelled cleaning service at the San Francisco headquarters earlier this month after they went on strike for a better deal.

Mr Musk, whose company has missed rent payments on the San Francisco office, has closed four of its floors and moved all staff onto two floors.

According to The New York Times, people familiar with the moves say it has left the California office in “disarray.”

“With people packed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout food and body odor has lingered on the floors, according to four current and former employees,” reported the newspaper.

“Bathrooms have grown dirty, these people said. And because janitorial services have largely been ended, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.”

Asked on Twitter if the story was true, Mr Musk appeared to confirm it, writing: “BYOTP! Lol, it was true for half a day.”

Twitter has also laid off 208 workers in Washington state and as it faces eviction from its Seattle office will now close them down permanently, according to Platformer.

The billionaire reluctantly bought the company in October for $44bn, despite trying to publicly back out of a deal for months.

Since taking over he has fired or laid off around 75 per cent of the company’s staff, leaving it with “a little over 2000 people” he told a live forum on Twitter last week.

As Mr Musk has tried to re-invent Twitter and stem its financial losses, the stock price of Tesla has dropped dramatically in 2022, slashing around $700bn in market value.

The Independent has reached out to Twitter for comment but Mr Musk has eliminated its communications department.

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