The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection is investigating Twitter after the company put beds in its office so people could work later.
Twitter decided to put the beds in its San Francisco office in an attempt to make it easier for its employees to work late. The move meant that they didn’t need to go home after their shift, likely also allowing them to also start working sooner after waking up. The beds appeared after owner and CEO Elon Musk demanded that Twitter employees work harder than ever.
Musk has told employees that they need to work longer hours and sign on for an “extremely hardcore” experience as Twitter 2.0 is built. The result was that some employees were photographed sleeping on the floor. Soon after, the beds appeared.
But as the Department of Building Inspection points out, offices aren’t meant for sleeping in.
“We need to make sure the building is being used as intended”, said Patrick Hannan, the communications director for the department, in a statement reported on by Forbes. “There are different building code requirements for residential buildings, including those being used for short-term stays”.
The beds themselves are made up of queen-sized mattresses, with some placed in what Forbes describes as a conference room “based on two large telepresence monitors on the wall”.
Whether Musk or Twitter will find that they have to remove the beds, or get an additional permit, remains to be seen. But it’s another example of Twitter’s lurching from one problem to another – as has been the case since Musk took over Twitter following a $44 billion buyout at the end of October.