An ugly spat has erupted on Twitter after Elon Musk decided that staff remaining at his newly-owned company would no longer be offered free lunch.
Instead, employees who kept their jobs after Musk fired about half the company’s workforce have been told they will have to start paying their own way, two employees said. News from New York.
The world’s richest person doubled down on Monday after being criticized for the decision by some.
“He fired 3/4 of the employees. Now he plans to starve the rest. He is failure incarnate,” read one popular tweet in response to his decision.
Musk fired shortly after, arguing that almost no staff showed up for lunch.
“Especially strange considering hardly anyone came to the office. Estimated cost per lunch served over the last 12 months is >$400,” he wrote.
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A former employee who claimed she left Twitter because of Musk challenged him about the cost of providing breakfast and lunch to staff.
“That’s a lie. I ran this program until a week ago when I quit because I didn’t want to work for Elon Musk. For breakfast and lunch we spent $20-$25 a day per person. This allowed employees to work during the lunch time and meetings. Attendance was 20-50% in offices,” he tweeted.
Musk, however, said the former staff member was “fake” and that the company spent “$13 million a year on food service for the San Francisco headquarters.”
“The badge on the records shows peak occupancy was 25%, average occupancy below 10%. There are more people making breakfast than eating breakfast. They don’t even bother serving dinner, because at there is no one in the building”, he answered.
Musk sent an email to staff last week saying they were expected to be in the office at least 40 hours a week.
The email, sent late Wednesday afternoon (local time), said there was “no way to sugarcoat the message” about the economy and its impact on Twitter, which relied on ads, according to the business news website . Bloomberg.
“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Musk wrote to his employees.
In another email, the world’s richest man added that “in the coming days, the absolute priority is to find and suspend any verified bot/troll/spam.”
Musk, also Tesla’s CEO, told workers at the electric car maker in June that working remotely would no longer be acceptable.
Read related topics: Elon Musk