Remember the lady who slept on the floor at Twitter (now rebranded as X) when her team was “pushing round the clock to make deadlines” — she has shared her experience and made some startling statements about working under Elon Musk‘s leadership.
What Happened: Earlier this year, Musk laid off many Twitter employees, including Esther Crawford, popularly known as Twitter’s sleeping bag lady.
Crawford now takes us behind the scenes, revealing the roller-coaster ride of emotions and challenges during the days leading up to the tech billionaire’s acquisition of Twitter, which she describes as “slow” and “painful.”
The initial months under Musk’s leadership were nothing short of “wildly crazy,” she says.
See Also: ‘Wanna Bet?’: Elon Musk Thinks People Will Start Calling Twitter ‘X,’ And He Is Ready To Bet On It
Crawford’s candid account revealed her admiration for Musk’s exceptional talent in tackling hard physics-based problems. However, she pointed out that products facilitating human connection and communication required a different type of social-emotional intelligence, an area where his leadership faced challenges.
She expressed concern for X’s future, emphasizing that social networks are not immune from death spirals but also highlighted the importance of competition for consumers.
The former director of product management at Twitter, also known as the founder of Squad, a screen-sharing and video chat app, said the platform that once moved sluggishly with bureaucratic hurdles had found itself under the influence of a mercurial leader driven by a unique experience of being the most prominent voice on the platform.
Ultimately, she refrained from giving a radical opinion on X’s success or doom. “Perhaps X becomes a resounding success. Or it fails epically. Either way, I expect it will continue to be a very entertaining ride.”
Why It’s Important: Musk’s X sacked almost 50% of the company’s workforce globally in 2022. Musk defended the decision by saying, “There is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.”
Soon after, when the tech mogul gave employees an ultimatum about Twitter 2.0, hundreds of people chose to exit the company instead of agreeing to work “long hours at high intensity.”
Image Source – Esther Crawford (Twitter)
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Read Next: Twitter Snatches @X Handle At Last — But How Much Did Elon Musk Pay for It?
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