A female director at Twitter chose to sleep at her workplace at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, California, so that she could meet a deadline set by the company's new owner, Elon Musk, to finish verifying Twitter users.

Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, appeared asleep on the floor between a table and some chairs, in what looked like a conference room, with a sleeping cover over her eyes under the fluorescent lights in the office.

When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork https://t.co/UBGKYPilbD

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022

The image sparked controversy on social media platforms, at a time when employees are rushing to meet the tight deadlines that Musk imposed on them in the company, which employed 7,500 employees at the end of last October and is based in California.

A week after buying it in a $44 billion deal, American billionaire Elon Musk decided to lay off about half of the social media giant's staff.

According to the American newspaper, "Economic times", the photo was shared by an employee named Evan Jones with a comment saying, "When you need something from your boss on Elon (Musk's) Twitter."

When you need something from your boss at elon twitter pic.twitter.com/hfArXl5NiL

— evan (@evanstnlyjones) November 2, 2022

The US Insider website obtained an internal message telling workers that they must work 24/7 to meet Musk's deadline to complete verification of Twitter users.

The newspaper report said workers fear they will lose their jobs if they cannot complete verification by the end of the week.

"Doing tough things requires sacrificing time and energy," Crawford tweeted. "I have my teammates all over the world making efforts to bring something new to life, so it's important to me to be with them and keep the team going."

Since some people are losing their minds I'll explain: doing hard things requires sacrifice (time, energy, etc).

I have teammates around the world who are putting in the effort to bring something new to life so it's important to me to show up for them & keep the team unblocked.

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022

She added: “We are a team and we use the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork, which is why I tweeted #SleepWhereYouWork to spread joy among my colleagues.

We've been in the midst of a crazy public takeover for months now, but we continue to do so, and I'm very proud of our strength and resilience."

"I love my family and am grateful that they understand that there are times when I need to get up to speed and push to get done. It's very hard to do building new things on the Twitter scale. I'm fortunate to be doing this work alongside some of the best people in technology." .

I love my family and I'm grateful they understand that there are times where I need to go into overdrive to grind and push in order to deliver.

Building new things at Twitter's scale is very hard to do.

I'm lucky to be doing this work alongside some of the best people in tech.

💙

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022

In early November, Musk announced a fee for Twitter users in a tweet, saying, "The current lords and peasants system on Twitter for those with or without a blue tick is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8 a month."

Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit.

Power to the people!

Blue for $8/month.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

"I'm so proud of the team's effort to quickly change gears and bring this new vision to life," Crawford commented on Musk's tweet about charging $8 per verified Twitter account.

I'm very proud of the #OneTeam effort happening to quickly shift gears and bring this new vision to life.

https://t.co/8VzRtgurqG

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 1, 2022

My lessons apologize

In a related context, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for causing the company's situation and firing employees, saying, "I realize that a lot of people are angry with me. I take responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company so quickly. I apologize for that." ".

Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient.

They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment.

I realize many are angry with me.

I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly.

I apologize for that.

— jack (@jack) November 5, 2022

In his tweet yesterday, Saturday, Musk - the richest person in the world - justified the dismissal of employees by saying that there was unfortunately no other option for Twitter than to reduce the number of its employees, while it loses more than 4 million dollars a day.

Regarding Twitter's reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.

Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022