Elon Musk Ends Free Lunches for Twitter Employees After Making Ridiculous Discovery

By Chase McCown November 15, 2022 at 3:17pm

Twitter employees are once again in an uproar after CEO Elon Musk made a ridiculous discovery involving the program’s costs.

Twitter’s San Francisco HQ’s free lunch program was axed by the technology mogul after he discovered they were costing the company close to $13 million a year, the New York Post reported.

One cause noted by Musk for the high expense of the program was the lack of in office attendance.

Former employee Tracy Hawkins, Twitter’s vice president of work transformation, fired back.

“This is a lie. I ran this program up until a week ago when I resigned because I didn’t want to work for @elonmusk,” Hawkins wrote in a Tuesday tweet.

This is a lie. I ran this program up until a week ago when I resigned because I didn’t want to work for @elonmusk For breakfast & lunch we spent $20-$25 a day per person. This enabled employees to work thru lunchtime & mtgs. Attendance was anything from 20-50% in the offices. https://t.co/0OjbeComka

— Tracy Hawkins  (@_hawko) November 13, 2022

False. Twitter spends $13M/year on food service for SF HQ. Badge in records show peak occupancy was 25%, average occupancy below 10%.

There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast.

They don’t even bother serving dinner, because there is no one in the building.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

“False. Twitter spends $13M/year on food service for SF HQ. Badge in records show peak occupancy was 25%, average occupancy below 10%. There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast. They don’t even bother serving dinner, because there is no one in the building,” Musk responded in his own tweet.

Do you think Musk is making the right move?

The move comes after Elon Musk’s decision to lay off a huge portion of the employees at the HQ.

While there may be benefits to a company covering food costs for employees to increase productivity during crunch time, attendance issues clearly prevented this from being a worthwhile investment.

Part of Musk’s plan to get the company back on track includes ending the remote work for employees, unless they have his permission, the Post reported.

In a letter to his employees addressing the economy and its impact on Twitter, Musk wrote, “The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed.”

This came after the CEO made a similar move at Tesla in June, stating that remote work was no longer acceptable.

One plan to get the company back on track is “Twitter Blue,” with an advertisement for the subscription pitching that it offers “half the ads & much better ones,” according to the Post.

It continued, “Since you’re supporting Twitter in the battle against the bots, we’re going to reward you with half the ads and make them twice as relevant.”

It also boasted that subscribed users would have higher priority in replies, mentions and searches.

While the future of the social media giant is uncertain, increasing productivity and adding new revenue streams while cutting unsustainable expenses are certainly good ways to start.

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