Elon Musk Cuts Twitter HQ’s $13M/Yr Employee Food Service, Debate Ensues

Much is being said about Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter. In the past two weeks, reports have mostly centered around the initial chaos with many criticizing his apparent inexperience in the role. Despite the online uproar and internal strife, it’s too early to say what the future holds for the social platform.

Last Sunday, Musk revealed that Twitter spent $13 Million on food services for employees at their SF-based headquarters. The company’s former Vice President of Work Transformation Tracy Hawkins, chimed in, calling Musk a liar. 

This is a lie. I ran this program up until a week ago when I resigned because I didn’t want to work for @elonmusk For breakfast & lunch we spent $20-$25 a day per person. This enabled employees to work thru lunchtime & mtgs. Attendance was anything from 20-50% in the offices. https://t.co/0OjbeComka

— Tracy Hawkins  (@_hawko) November 13, 2022

Hawkins objected to Musk’s initial claim that almost no employees came into the Twitter offices in the past 12 months, stating that between $20 to $25 was spent per person for breakfast and lunch a day, allowing employees to work through lunch and meetings.

Not to be one-upped, Musk curbed Hawkins, calling her objections false and said Twitter HQ’s badge in records only showed a peak occupancy of 25% with the average below 10%. “There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast. They don’t even bother serving dinner, because there is no one in the building.”

Maybe they should learn to cook! https://t.co/iCIJMDhuE2

— Niche Gamer (@nichegamer) November 13, 2022

Following the thread led to the original culprit tweet that garnered Musk’s reply and Hawkin’s subsequent objection. A Twitter user named Niche Gamer replied to a New York Times article shared by Andrew Wortman entitled “Two Weeks of Chaos: Inside Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter”. Clearly not a Musk-fan, Wortman accompanied the article with the words, “He fired 3/4 of the employees. Now he’s planning to starve the rest of them. He’s failure incarnate.”

The back and forth has fueled a barrage of other tweets to debate whether employees deserve company-paid food or should buy their own lunch like most of the world’s workforce.

Recognizing the obvious benefits of free food services, one user tweeted:

Bewildered by the concept, another tweet sarcastically responded:

Twitterer Adam Hommey apparently has experience in the tech industry and shared:

His comment was quickly interjected by user DavidJW:

The debate continued with another user’s comment:

In response to his assertions of privilege, Jordan Amdahl said:

The debate continues on Twitter with hundreds of replies representing one side or the other. While working at a six-figure job that pays for your food is rare, quitting should never be a privilege. Despite how privileged some of the Twitter employees may seem, it’s hard to judge the decisions one makes about their current working conditions.