If Twitter wants to keep the recently added sleeping quarters at its main San Francisco office, the company has to make a few changes.
The city’s Department of Building Inspection issued a correction notice to Twitter this week, ordering the tech giant to revise how the rooms containing beds are labelled in its building permit and floor plan. Or, alternately, Twitter could opt to restore the spaces to their original conference room use. The company was granted 15 days from the notice to make the adjustments, as first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
At Elon Musk’s “hardcore” Twitter, the few remaining employees have at least had the option to get some shut eye. Under the new CEO’s leadership, the company installed beds at its San Francisco headquarters. But the rapid office makeover drew complaints and an investigation from the SF Buildings Department.
This week’s notice is seemingly the conclusion of that probe, and signals that — with some small alterations — Twitter employees will continue to be allowed to sleep in the downtown office. In theory, Twitter could be subject to fines for having an incorrect building permit, but so far that hasn’t happened, per the Chronicle.
Under San Francisco’s building codes, there are certain safety features required in places where people are sleeping — yet Twitter seems to be meeting those. In a previous inspection from earlier in January, an official noted that the converted bed areas are “outfitted with a full life safety system, including sprinklers and fire alarm,” according to a report from the San Francisco Building Times.
If the office spaces were being used as full time residences, they would have to meet more exacting city standards like particular minimums of light and air access, according to the Chronicle. However, having beds in a commercial office space is not exactly out of sync with San Francisco norms. “We see quiet rooms, rest spaces, sleeping pods and things of the like frequently in modern office fit-outs, and this doesn’t appear to be radically different,” Dan Sider, the city’s planning department chief of staff, told the outlet.
Ultimately, though emblematic of a divisive leadership style and company culture, the beds in Twitter’s HQ are probably not the social media platform’s biggest issue there. More pressing, perhaps, is the lawsuit over missed rent that Twitter’s landlord has levied against the company. Twitter has reportedly not paid its Market St. landlord for months, and owes more than $US6.7 ($9) million, according to the pending complaint. Under Musk’s leadership, the company has also reportedly skipped out on rent at its London, U.K. headquarters and at least one other California office space.