A former Twitter employee has spoken out following a photo of her going viral while sleeping at the company's office in order to complete a deadline.
Esther Crawford used to be the director of product management at Twitter and hit headlines after a photograph of her sleeping on the office floor went viral on social media.
"When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork," her caption read.
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Crawford faced a divided response online and has since addressed the image and what it was like working at the company after Musk took over - staff reportedly being ordered to work '84-hour weeks' or risk losing their jobs.
In a post to Twitter - recently rebranded as X - Crawford has 'open[ed] up a bit' about her experiences working under Musk, including reflecting on the photograph of herself which went viral.
The former employee reflects how the image going viral was 'an odd and interesting experience'.
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"I was attacked by people on the left and called a billionaire bootlicker, while simultaneously being attacked by people on the right for being a working mom who was demonized as an example of a woman choosing her career over her family," she explains.
Crawford notes the 'real story' behind the image is actually 'pretty simple'.
Crawford claims the image was taken after she was given 'a nearly impossible deadline' for Musk's first project.
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"As the product lead I would never ask anyone to do anything I wasn’t willing to do myself," she continues. "So I worked round the clock alongside an amazing team spanning many timezones, and we delivered it on schedule."
The former employee notes it was 'truly against the odds' the team managed to complete the task for the deadline, but while it 'was intense' she adds it was 'also fun'.
The first few months after Musk took over the company in 2022 were 'wildly crazy' according to Crawford.
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However, she presses: "But I wanted to be there and I have no regrets."
Crawford said: "Showing up and giving it your all should, in most cases, be celebrated. Obviously you can’t work at that pace forever but there are moments where bursts are mission critical. I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career and also when I was a student for something that mattered to me.
"I don’t regret putting in long hours or being ambitious, and feel proud of how far I’ve come from where I started thanks in part to that type of work ethic."
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The former director of product management was later laid off by Twitter, despite her dedication in getting Musk's task done to deadline.
Crawford says: "Sometimes I get asked about how I felt when I got laid off, and the truth is it was the best gift I’ve ever received."
Reflecting on Musk, she also argues he 'doesn't deserve to be venerated or vilified'.
She resolves: "He’s a complicated person with an unfathomable amount of financial and geopolitical power which is why humanity needs him to err on the side of goodness, rather than political divisiveness and pettiness.
"[...] Everyone can be seen as both a hero or a villain, depending on who is telling what angle of the story."
UNILAD has contacted X for comment.
Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media, Money, US News, Celebrity
Poppy Bilderbeck