Elon Musk's Twitter Extreme Cost Cutting: Rent Not Paid, No Kitchen, No Toilet Rolls, And No 'Unwanted' Things

Elon Musk was the richest man on Earth, and this time he's facing one of the biggest challenges of his life.

After becoming the first man in modern history to have lost $200 billion, many considered that Musk hasn't learned his lesson yet.

When Musk was 'forced' to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, he didn't have the slightest idea of how to make Twitter work, even though he is one of the most followed people on the platform.

He made changes after changes, and reverted one and the next. He fired many people, reinstated controversial figures, including former U.S. President Donald Trump and rapper Kanye West, among others.

His decisions are sometimes contradicting.

But what he's really after, is cost cutting measures that go to the extreme.

Musk is seen by many people as an experienced serial entrepreneur, who helped changed how humanity see technology and the world, through his companies like Tesla, SpaceX and more.

The tech billionaire has a very strong but eccentric personality.

However, many see him as a person with a half-baked views on the world's politics. Furthermore, many also see Musk as a man that is overpowered by his larger-than-life ego, and childish.

Since Musk's acquisition, Twitter is no longer the Twitter under Jack Dorsey's supervision.

And at Twitter, Musk has turned the company's work culture upside down.

For starters, he removed the work-from-home policy, and asked employees to return to the office, or simply quit if they do not wish to be a part of the tough work culture.

He even turned some of the working spaces in the office to also function as bedrooms, so employees can work all day long.

In fact, photos of Twitter offices turned into bedrooms with bed, sofa, purifier, and more have gone viral on social media.

For a long time, Musk has been the role model for hard workers. But at Twitter, he's going to the extreme, by saying that he is working 24/7, and that he wants people at Twitter to do at least the same.

He asked employees to at least spend 40 hours at their stations working, saying that "the road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed."

In his attempt to build Twitter 2.0, the billionaire expects employees to be available whenever they're needed.

In an email to employees, Musk once said that Twitter "will need to be extremely hardcore", and what that means, include "working long hours at high intensity," he said, adding that "only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade."

Then, in his attempt to cut cost at Twitter, he also fired nearly 50% of the workforce.

To cut costs even further, the "Chief Twit" also fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.

And because janitors were also fired, reports state that employees are required to bring their own toilet paper, and that no one is cleaning the washrooms at the office.

It wasn't Musk's initial intention to fire the janitors. It's only that because they went on strike for higher pay, that Musk relieved them from their duties.

As a result of this, office reeks of "leftover takeout food and body odor,” one source said.

Some security guards were also reportedly laid off.

And because the company is having less workforce than before, the Chief Twit reportedly crammed the remaining employees in two floors, and close the other four floors.

Managers who didn't lose their jobs in the mass layoffs, had to "approach their spending with a tactic known as zero-based budgeting," or "operating under the assumption that spending should start at nothing and teams should justify individual costs, according to the costs-savings document."

Musk then went further in his cost cutting measures, by closing down its Seattle offices, and shutting down one of Twitter’s data centers in California, despite reported concerns among some employees that it could hurt the site’s performance.

Musk also discontinued several facilities for employees, and stopped the company from providing anymore free lunch and free snacks.

Musk once claimed that Twitter paid around $10 million a year to serve free lunches to employees.

Not just that, Musk is also selling furniture, kitchen appliances, and all the so-called "unwanted" items present at Twitter's headquarters.

Among the items Twitter auctioned off, include a pizza oven, a 40-quart commercial kitchen floor mixer, high-end designer furniture.

Musk even auctioned off a Twitter bird statue, and a neon Twitter bird light display.

All that to make money.

"This company is like, basically, you are in a plane that is headed toward the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls don’t work," Musk once said, after estimating that Twitter was losing $3 million a day, and was on track to have a "negative cash flow situation” of $3 billion in 2023 due to a lack of advertising revenue and increased costs, such as debt payments.

"That is why I spent the last five weeks cutting costs like crazy," he added.

Following his cost cutting strategies, he said that Twitter is no longer "sinking."

But again, his method of leadership style and approaches isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Making things worse, reports also said that Musk allegedly missed paying for rent for one of Twitter offices in San Francisco.

Because of this, a commercial landlord is suing Twitter for breach of contract.

The lawsuit concerns Twitter’s office space at 650 California Street, not its main headquarters on Market Street.

This allegation came after media reports suggest that Elon Musk had stopped paying rent on Twitter’s office space globally - including for its headquarters - and had told employees not to pay company vendors, in an apparent effort to cut costs.

The lease on the said location, was made in September 2017 for a period of seven years and covered 15,500 square feet, which is the entire 30th floor of the building. The annual rent started at $1.29 million, and the lease had automatic increases throughout the seven-year term.

According to a copy of the complaint filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco, Twitter missed a rent payment of $136,260 for its 650 California Street office.

The company is then given five business days to make the payment for the rent, plus interest, plus the landlord's attorney fees.

But since Musk is known as one of the wealthiest people in the world, landlords who rented their properties to Musk, would love to push him hard, despite risking Musk to abandon the rented spaces altogether, resulting in a costly extended vacancy for the properties

Even if Twitter cannot pay for the rent, they definitely know that Musk's pockets are deeper than Twitter's.

It was then revealed that to cut even more cost, Musk also slashed Twitter's spending on software licenses.