Elon Musk Faces Probe Over Turning Twitter Headquarters Into "Hotel Rooms"

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, is under investigation after six former employees claimed that the company's leadership team breached the law by converting the company's headquarters into a "Twitter Hotel" for workers who were encouraged to stay up late to "transform" the social media platform, as per a report in CNBC. 

The billionaire is facing a probe over building code violations at the company's San Francisco headquarters, the outlet said citing the online public records with the Department of Building Inspection.

The investigation stems from a complaint filed in Delaware court on May 16 by former Twitter workers, who claim Mr Musk's "transition team" deliberately and repeatedly directed them to violate local and federal regulations, including making unsafe changes to the company's office space.

According to the lawsuit, the company X Corp directed employees to convert rooms in the headquarters into "hotel rooms," while lying to inspectors and their landlord that they were just "temporary rest spaces" with some comfortable furniture added and no substantive or structural changes.

The complaint also mentions that an employee was instructed to install locks on the unauthorised "hotel room" doors that did not comply with a California requirement that "requires locks that automatically disengage when the building's fire suppression systems are triggered." Further, the transition team led by Mr Musk told them that the "locks were too expensive" and urged them to "immediately install cheaper locks that were not compliant with life safety and egress codes." Finally, the employee quit rather than breaking the law. 

The lawsuit also stated that the members of Mr Musk's team ordered the staff involved in real estate management to "slash costs by $500 million as quickly as they could". To save money, the team instructed staff to simply refuse to pay landlords who owed the firm rent.

Mr Musk converted the office space into a bedroom in December 2022, as per a report and pictures accessed by the BBC. A few pictures showed a conference room converted into a room with a double bed, including a wardrobe and slippers. Pictures of sofas at the headquarters being used as beds were also widely posted on social media. Another conference room had an alarm clock and a picture placed over a made-up bed.

The case also claims that Mr Musk-led Twitter terminated certain senior workers based on their age, gender, and sexual orientation while failing to give them the benefits, severance compensation and back pay they were entitled to.