According to reports, the Twitter executive seen in a viral photo sleeping on the floor at headquarters as Elon Musk imposed his “extremely hardcore” work culture has been fired.
According to the Information, Esther Crawford, a holdover from the previous regime who reportedly gained Musk’s trust and elbowed her way into the reclusive mogul’s tight inner circle, was fired over the weekend.
According to sources, Crawford and several other product leaders were fired after being locked out of their company systems over the weekend.
Crawford took to social media late Sunday to respond to the barrage of criticism from Twitter users who pointed out that she was let go despite her devotion to her new job.
“The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake,” Crawford tweeted.
“Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena,” she said, referencing a famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt.
“I’m deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos.”
Several Twitter users accused Crawford of being “sycophantic” while others snarked that it was a “real shocker that sleeping in the office wasn’t enough.”
The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake. Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena. I’m deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos. 💙
— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) February 27, 2023
Crawford, who was tasked with overseeing the Twitter Blue subscription service, stood out because she was one of Musk’s few trusted lieutenants who had not come from one of his other companies — Tesla, SpaceX, or The Boring Company.
Crawford was among dozens of engineers, product managers, data scientists, and team leaders let go by the tech-focused news site. According to reports, at least 200 employees were laid off in the most recent round of layoffs.
Martijn de Kuijper, a senior product manager based in the Netherlands, tweeted that he, too, found out about his dismissal when he was unable to log into his corporate computer system.
“Waking up to find I’ve been locked out of my email. Looks like I’m let go,” tweeted de Kuijper, who founded the Revue newsletter platform, which was later bought by Twitter.
“Now my Revue journey is really over.”
Twitter shut down Revue in January.
The latest job cuts at Twitter appear to indicate that Musk is struggling to meet his goal of breaking even. Since taking over the San Francisco-based microblogging site last fall, Musk has reduced his workforce at least eight times.
Twitter employed approximately 7,500 people before Musk purchased the company. As of Monday, that figure had been reduced to around 2,000, a 73% reduction.
Musk’s social media company, which he purchased for $44 billion last year, is required to make an annual interest payment of $1.2 billion under the terms of the mogul’s heavily leveraged buyout.
Waking up to find I’ve been locked out of my email. Looks like I’m let go. Now my Revue journey is really over 🫡
— Martijn (@mdekuijper) February 26, 2023
In November, Musk stated that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue” as advertisers reduced spending due to concerns about content moderation.
Twitter has recently begun sharing ad revenue with some of its content creators.
