In November 2022, when Elon Musk had just bought Twitter and wanted to do away with the existing blue check system, Esther Crawford posted what she later described as a “cheeky” photo of herself sleeping at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, California.
“When your team is working around the clock to meet deadlines, sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork,” wrote Crawford, director of product management at the time.
The photo went viral and became, for better or worse, emblematic of the work culture — and chaos — that had taken over Twitter under its new boss.
“I love my family and I’m grateful that they understand that there are times when I have to go into overdrive to work and push to get the result. Building new things at the scale of Twitter is very hard to do. I’m lucky to be doing this work alongside some of the best people in tech,” Crawford wrote on Twitter. after receiving feedback on the photo.
But behind the scenes, Twitter’s CEO shared concerns about her employees burning out under the pressure of Musk’s demands and tight deadlines.
Also, the photo was staged.
Pushing the team to death
According to a story adapted from “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter,” an upcoming book about Musk’s chaotic takeover of the company by New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mack, Crawford expressed concern to Musk about how her team was forced to redesign Twitter Blue into a service that would hand out blue checks to any user who paid $8 a month. Previously, verifications were used to verify celebrities, government organizations, and other known users susceptible to impersonators. The old Twitter Blue also offered users more features, such as the ability to edit tweets.
Three sources familiar with Crawford’s conversations with Musk told Times reporters that the Twitter chief had been given 10 days to relaunch Blue.
This pressure has obviously rubbed off on some members of the team.
According to the excerpt, some employees working on Blue began tracking their peak heart rates on their Apple Watches and sharing the stats with colleagues as a lighthearted joke.
At one point, Crawford, who had to come up with a careful tactic to approach Musk, told the new boss she didn’t want to push her team to death.
“I don’t want to push the team to die for this,” Crawford told Musk, according to the excerpt.
“Well, get them right before they die,” Musk said, laughing.
Crawford and a spokesman for X did not respond to a request for comment.
Loyal employee of Musk
Crawford joined Twitter in 2020 and stayed on from Musk’s takeover until she was fired.
It’s unclear why Crawford was let go, even though he was one of Musk’s most loyal employees. In February 2023, the director was among at least 50 team members who have been fired. The company was rebranded to X in July 2023
The former CEO had said on social media that she had embraced Musk’s pushback culture and that before he came on board, “Twitter often felt like a place that continued to squander its own potential.” But she also said Musk had put himself in an “echo chamber” by surrounding himself with yes men.
According to the book, Crawford brought a sleeping bag and eye mask to the office for nap breaks. One of her colleagues had even photographed her sleeping on the job.
Crawford and her co-stars later decided to take another shot of her in her sleeping bag — this time on stage — after a long shift with the crew.
The tweet of the staged photo quickly went viral, drawing both praise and criticism.
According to the book, the co-worker who took the photo wanted to remove the post, but Crawford insisted they keep it.
“We are #OneTeam and we use the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork to show it, which is why I retweeted with #SleepWhereYouWork — a cheeky nod to fellow Tweeps,” Crawford wrote at the time. “We’ve been in the midst of a crazy public takeover for months, but we’re going strong and I’m so proud of our strength and resilience.”
In April, Crawford announced he was joining Meta and praised CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his “vision and intensity.” Crawford took on a similar role he had at Twitter, becoming director of product management at Meta.
“Seeing how he’s made the company more efficient and less bureaucratic over the last year makes me want to join even more because I want to move fast and deliver great products,” Crawford said of Zuckerberg.