A former Twitter govt who went “hardcore” for brand spanking new boss Elon Musk by sleeping on the workplace ground only to be fired by the mogul a short time later is now working for his billionaire archrival Mark Zuckerberg.
Esther Crawford, who in 2022 posted photos of herself in a sleeping bag on the San Francisco headquarters of the corporate that Musk has since rebranded as X, took to Instagram to announce that she is now employed by Zuckerberg’s agency, Meta.
“Some private information: I’ve joined the Messenger staff at Meta as a Director of Product,” Crawford, who was Twitter’s director of product administration for 2 years earlier than she was laid off in February of final yr, wrote on her Instagram account on Monday.
She wrote that Meta was her “best choice” as a result of “I’m obsessive about how people join by means of expertise” and that Zuckerberg’s store is exclusive in that “no different firm has an even bigger scale of influence in that house than Meta.”
Crawford praised her new boss, Zuckerberg, for his “imaginative and prescient and depth.”
“Seeing how he’s made the corporate extra environment friendly and fewer bureaucratic previously yr makes me much more bullish to be becoming a member of now as a result of I wish to transfer quick and ship superior merchandise,” Crawford wrote on Instagram, which is owned by Meta.
Crawford joined Twitter in December 2020 after it acquired Squad, her video chat startup.
When Musk acquired Twitter in late 2022 for $44 billion, Crawford was one of many holdover executives who purchased into the mogul’s imaginative and prescient of round the clock work within the workplace.
In November 2022, she posted a number of pictures of social media exhibiting her in a sleeping bag that was laid out on the ground of her workplace.
“When your staff is pushing around the clock to make deadlines typically you #SleepWhereYouWork,” Crawford wrote within the tweet, which has since been deleted.
Musk rewarded Crawford by placing her accountable for the Twitter Blue subscription service.
However Musk ultimately gave Crawford and different prime engineers on the firm the pink slip in an effort to carry down prices.
Since Musk took over the corporate previously generally known as Twitter, some 80% of the workforce has been let go.
A number of months after she was laid off, Crawford took to X and wrote that whereas Musk is “oddly charming and genuinely humorous,” he might be tough to take care of due since “his personality and demeanor can turn on a dime going from excited to indignant.”
“Because it was onerous to learn what temper he may be in and what his response can be to any given factor, individuals shortly turned afraid of being called into meetings or having to share adverse information with him,” Crawford wrote.
She additionally wrote that Musk had an “internal circle” that was “too zealous and fanatical of their unwavering assist of every little thing he mentioned.”
Zuckerberg’s resolution to rent Crawford is the newest wrinkle in his long-running rivalry with Musk, who has taken potshots on the fellow tech billionaire on quite a few events.
Musk has been quoted as saying that Zuckerberg’s social media platforms “make individuals depressed.”
The Tesla boss started escalating his struggle with Zuckerberg after experiences emerged that Meta was engaged on an app to rival X.
That app ultimately got here to be generally known as Threads. Whereas its preliminary rollout was successful, its utilization dipped.
In February, nonetheless, knowledge confirmed that Threads was getting extra downloads on Apple-run iOS and Google Play than X.
Threads is reported to have greater than 130 million month-to-month customers whereas X says it has some 550 million customers.
X threatened authorized motion in opposition to Meta alleging that the corporate employed former Twitter engineers and used the agency’s secrets and techniques to create a copycat app.
Meta has dismissed the claims.
Musk additionally challenged Zuckerberg to a blended martial arts match, however the two males might by no means agree on a date and venue.
The Put up has sought remark from X and Meta.
