Twitter Employee Reportedly Vomited Into Trash Can After Directive From Musk

On Friday, The New York Times posted a report investigating Elon Musk’s first few weeks as CEO of Twitter, citing eight reporters who interviewed Twitter staff, both current and former. The paper told readers on two separate occasions that Twitter employees vomited as a result of actions taken by Musk.

Writers Kate Conger, Mike Isaac, Ryan Mac and Tiffany Hsu authored the article, which took supplemental interviews from Kevin Roose, Lauren Hirsch, Kitty Bennett and David McCabe. The largely negative piece promised an exhaustive deep dive into the social media company, and noted the vomiting instance early in the story, writing, “One engineering manager, upon being told to cut hundreds of workers, vomited into a trash can. Others slept in the office as they worked grueling schedules to meet Mr. Musk’s orders.”

They repeated this point later, saying, “One engineering manager was approached by Mr. Musk’s advisers — or ‘goons,’ as Twitter employees called them — with a list of hundreds of people he had to let go. He vomited into a trash can near his feet.”

The authors then described the impact of Musk’s purchase: “The fallout has often been excruciating, according to 36 current and former Twitter employees and people close to the company, as well as internal documents and workplace chat logs.”

Regarding potential layoffs, they noted that the tech executive refused to factor “diversity and inclusion” into his actions: “Twitter executives also suggested assessing the lists for diversity and inclusion issues so the cuts would not hit people of color disproportionately and to avoid legal trouble. Mr. Musk’s team brushed aside the suggestion, two people said.”

The Times recounted how the layoff plan developed: “On Oct. 28, hours after completing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter the night before, Mr. Musk gathered several human-resource executives in a ‘war room’ in the company’s offices in San Francisco. Prepare for widespread layoffs, he told them, six people with knowledge of the discussion said. Twitter’s work force needed to be slashed immediately, he said.” Ultimately, Musk let go of approximately 50 percent of the staff.

The writers also explained that Musk would be removing free lunches at the company. “Mr. Musk plans to begin making employees pay for lunch — which had been free — at the company cafeteria, two people said.”

Later, the reporters discussed the recent midterm elections, writing, “Misinformation proliferated on the platform during Tuesday’s midterm elections.”

Twitter was responsible for infamously censoring the New York Post’s expose on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Yoel Roth, the executive behind the move, resigned on Thursday. His departure was noted in the article, but there was no mention of his censorship efforts.

The Times journalists pointed out the advertiser pressure being placed on Musk, saying, “Brands including Volkswagen Group, General Motors and United Airlines have said they will pause advertising on Twitter as they evaluate Mr. Musk’s ownership of the platform.”