Twitter Employee Who Went Viral For Sleeping On Floor At Office Survives Layoffs

Esther Crawford has been the director of product management at Twitter for two years

The Elon Musk takeover of Twitter has been nothing short of chaos and disaster for thousands of its employees worldwide. Amid all the lay-off drama, a picture of a Twitter employee sleeping on the floor at company’s office caused quite a stir on the social media platform last week. For many, the picture signified the consequence of Mr. Musk’s strict deadlines thrust upon employees. Interestingly, the employee in question, Esther Crawford, who went viral globally, didn’t suffer any consequence, and was among the fortunate ones who survived the mass lay-offs, Business Insider reported. While many on Twitter had empathised with her, others had questioned her work ethic. No matter what the public sentiment says, Ms. Crawford’s job seems to be safe at the moment.

As per her LinkedIn profile, Ms. Crawford has been the director of product management at Twitter for nearly two years. She has been a pivotal part of the company’s transition, with Business Insider citing the sleep-gate as “Ms. Crawford’s apparent ability to weather the storm”. The Information reported last week that the manager “appears to be rising in prominence” at Twitter since Musk completed his purchase. 

The viral photo was first shared by Evan Jones, a product manager for Twitter Spaces, showing his boss fast asleep on the office floor, curled up in a sleeping bag, and with a sleep mask pulled over her eyes.  “When you need something from your boss at elon twitter,” Evan Jones wrote while sharing the photograph. Crawford retweeted the photo, writing: “When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork.”

When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWorkhttps://t.co/UBGKYPilbD

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022

According to Business Insider, employees at Twitter have been working longer hours as Mr. Musk has set tight deadlines on major projects. The managers have also been asked the employees to put in extra hours to meet Mr. Musk’s deadlines, which explains why Ms. Crawford had to sleep in the office. After her picture went viral, she spoke about the criticism that she received from followers, noting that sometimes this work “requires sacrifice”. However,  many believed that the photo set unrealistic expectations for productivity, amid the simmering threat of job cuts.

Defending herself, she wrote on Twitter, “Since some people are losing their minds I’ll explain: doing hard things requires sacrifice (time, energy, etc).I have teammates around the world who are putting in the effort to bring something new to life so it’s important to me to show up for them & keep the team unblocked.”

I work with amazingly talented & ambitious people here at Twitter and this is not a normal moment in time. We are less than 1wk into a massive business & cultural transition. People are giving it their all across all functions: product, design, eng, legal, finance, marketing, etc

— Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022

“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. We’ve been in the midst of a crazy public acquisition for months but we keep going & I’m so proud of our strength & resilience,” she added.