‘Businesses are not families’: Ex-Twitter employee whose pic of sleeping in office went viral
A senior Twitter executive, Esther Crawford whose picture of sleeping on the floor at the company headquarters went viral earlier was fired in the recent round of layoffs.
The former employee took to Twitter on Friday to share her ordeal and said that at the end of the day, companies are not families and employees who are lucky to stay after a round of layoffs too deserve empathy.
“Seeing people who remain at a company after a round of layoffs get demonized for not quitting in solidarity is truly bizarre. Empathy should be extended to both sides. It’s hard to lose your job and the people who remain often end up having to pick up even more work,” she tweeted.
“After layoffs, roles often change and some people get moved up to replace those who left. For people who were overlooked or under-leveled the shakeup can give them a chance to shine. If you’re one of those people it’s okay to shoot your shot. Leaders are made in these moments”, she added.
In a thread of tweets, she said, “At the end of the day businesses are not families – they’re teams. The company’s needs can change or new directions can emerge. If you’re delivering with excellence then you can feel good, no matter what happens or when your time is up.”
While concluding her thread she said, “There are various things on which we don’t have control over. However, the best policy is to be “adaptable and antifragile”. “That way you don’t just bounce back from challenges but become smarter, wiser and stronger because of them”.
The picture of Crawford asleep on the office floor in a sleeping bag and eye mask went viral in November 2022. Crawford, however, defended the action and said, “You’ll be required to sleep at your workplace and work round the clock to meet deadlines”.
Crawford, a Musk loyalist, received a backlash on social media for staying back at the company after the mass layoffs in November and actively supporting the billionaire’s plans for Twitter.
Crawford was chief executive of Twitter payments and in charge of the paid Blue subscription service until she was laid off last week. It was reportedly the eighth round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over the microblogging platform in October 2022.
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