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In an aerial view, a modified company sign is posted on the exterior of the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, April 10, 2023.

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Elon Musk and X Corp. the Musk-backed parent company of social media platform Twitter face an investigation over building code violations at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on Market Street, according to online public records with the county's Department of Building Inspection.

The probe, which was previously reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, follows a lawsuit filed May 16 in Delaware court by six former Twitter employees, who allege Musk's "transition team" knowingly and repeatedly ordered them to break local and federal laws, including by making unsafe modifications to the company's office space.

The lawsuit alleges under Musk's management, X Corp. directed employees to turn rooms in the San Francisco headquarters office into "hotel rooms," while lying to inspectors and their landlord they were just "temporary rest spaces" with some comfortable furniture added and no substantive or structural changes.

The lawsuit says one employee was told to place locks on the unauthorized "hotel room" doors that did not meet a California code which "requires locks that automatically disengage when the building's fire suppression systems are triggered."

The ex-Twitter employee said in the complaint Musk's transition team repeatedly told them "compliant locks were too expensive" and instructed them instead to "immediately install cheaper locks that were not compliant with life safety and egress codes."

The employee quit rather than break that law, their attorneys noted in the lawsuit.

The complaint also alleges Musk-led Twitter failed to pay the employees severance, back pay and benefits they were owed, and discriminated against some senior employees on the basis of age, gender and sexual orientation when it decided to terminate them.

Additionally, the lawsuit said Musk and members of his transition team, namely Boring Company executive Steve Davis, ordered employees involved in the management of real estate to slash costs by $500 million as quickly as they could. In the drive to cut costs, the Musk transition team told employees to simply refuse to pay landlords who were owed rent by the company.

When informed of the risks of termination fees for certain leases, Davis told Twitter senior employees, "Well, we just won't pay those. We just won't pay landlords," adding, "we just won't pay rent," the complaint says.

Meanwhile, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is actively courting Musk to move Twitter headquarters to his jurisdiction. On Friday, he wrote on Twitter, "let's get them to MIA asap."

CNBC reached out to Twitter for further information and the company responded with an automated response that included a poop emoji but no comment.

A representative for the Department of Building Inspection in San Francisco said in an emailed statement that the complaint was opened Friday morning and "no further action has been taken yet."

"We expect to reach out to building management soon," the spokesperson wrote. "We are not speculating on future potential enforcement action."

Read the lawsuit here.

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Elon Musk and Twitter face San Francisco city probe over headquarters - CNBC

The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) announced on Friday (May 19) it had opened an investigation into allegations by former Twitter employees that CEO Elon Musk broke the law by turning company office space into bedrooms, according to the Associated Press.

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The complaintfiled by six erstwhile Twitter workersaccuses Musk of transformingthe companys headquarters into a so-called Twitter Hotel without the proper permitting.

The allegations stem from the period directly after Musk acquired the social media giant and laid off more than half the company, while encouraging the remaining employees to be extremely hardcore and spend all of their time at the office.

This is not the first time local officials have scrutinized Musks decision to set up de facto bedrooms in a commercial building. Musk responded to earlier inquiries by accusing San Francisco of prioritizing the wrong issues.

So city of SF attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl, Musk tweeted, linking to a San Francisco Chronicle article about a 10-month-old accidentally overdosing at a public playground.

San Franciscos DBI was not immediately available to confirm the AP report, while the Twitter communications department responded to an email inquiry with a poop emoji.

Ive been at Twitter SF HQ all night. Will be working & sleeping here until org is fixed. Elon Musk, Twitter CEO, in a (since-deleted) tweet last November.

Software: A software supplier used by Twitter is suing the company for missing payments on a $4.4 million contract that runs until 2024.

Private Jets: A chartered flight service is suing Twitter for derelict payments on flights worth $197,725.

Consulting: A group of legal and management consulting firmsincluding Charles River Associates, Yes Consulting, and the Analysis Groupare suing Twitter for late payments worth over $4 million.

Rent: Two office spaces in San Francisco opened lawsuits against Twitter at the start of the year, accusing the company of failing to pay its rent.

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Elon Musk told Twitter employees to sleep in the office, and now San ... - Quartz

Elon Musk is jumping the gun once again.

A week after he teased the new CEO of Twitter before it was ready to be announced, he revealed that two new Tesla electric vehicles are in the works.

The billionaire executive discussed the upcoming car launches during the companys annual shareholders meeting this week. In fact, he claimed that Tesla is currently in the process of building out the product.

I just want to emphasize that we are actually building a new product, Musk told the shareholders. We are actually designing a new product. Were not sitting on our hands here.

He continued: The design of the products and the manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else that is present in the industry.

According to TechCrunch, a rendering of the new vehicle silhouette appeared on the screen behind Musk, giving the audience an official teaser for one of the upcoming carspossibly the $25,000 hatchback that Musk alluded to three years ago during thecompanys battery day.

Despite the news of the two new EVs that are in the works, Musk clarified that the purpose of the company meeting wasnt to focus on new products and a more official launch announcement will take place eventually.

While Musk didnt specify what he meant by the company already building the models, its likely theyre working on a prototype instead of a production-ready vehicle.

Elsewhere during the meeting, the Tesla CEO forecasted a year of mixed results due to things like an uncertain economy, mass bankruptcies, the new Cybertruck delivery, Roadster production delays and Teslas first ads.

As for his Twitter day-to-day, Musk recently made headlines when he announced that Linda Yaccarino would be the platforms new CEO while he transitions into being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software, and sysops.

Yaccarino will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology, Musktweeted. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.

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Elon Musk Just Teased Two New Tesla EVs - Robb Report

During an interview with CNBCs David Faber, reiterated that nobody can tell him what to do or say, and that he doesnt care if his saying certain things hurts his companies.

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Musk doesnt care if what he tweets or says drives away future or current Tesla owners. Nor does he care if major advertisers on Twitter are put off by his remarks. The self-proclaimed free speech absolutist in a strange moment, Musk paused, before talking about Indigo Montoya. Per CNBC:

FABER: [...] I mean, you know, do your tweets hurt the company? Are there Tesla owners who say I dont agree with his political position because and I know it because he shares so much of it. Or are there advertisers on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino will come and say, you got to stop man or, you know, I cant get these ads because of some of the things you tweet.

MUSK: You know, Im reminded of a scene in The Princess Bride. Great movie.

FABER: Great movie.

MUSK: Where he confronts the person who killed his father. And he says, Offer me money. Offer me power. I dont care.

FABER: So, you just dont care. You want to share what you have to say?

MUSK: Ill say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.

The interview came after Musk tweeted that George Soros reminded him of the X-Men supervillain, Magneto. Musk received some criticism for the tweet about Soros, who like the comic book character is Jewish and survived the Holocaust. Faber pressed him, suggesting maybe the leader of a car company could refrain from tweeting certain things:

FABER: Okay but why share it? Why share it especially, I mean, why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you, advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you. Why not just say, hey, I think this. You can tell me, we can talk about it over there. And you can tell your friends, but why share it widely?

MUSK: I mean, theres freedom of speech. Im allowed to say what I want to

Incendiary remarks have often landed Musk in hot water with regulatory agencies in the U.S. (and beyond) and have even had a direct result on Tesla.

A number of major advertisers started to pull funding from the platform in the wake of changes enacted by Musk causing a major loss in revenue.

Musk will soon pass the roll of Twitter CEO to Linda Yaccarino, tellingCNBC hell be able to again focus on Tesla and SpaceX more, but its unclear if his decision to step down is related to Twitters loss of ad revenue under his leadership.

Excerpt from:

Elon Musk Will Say What He Wants, Even If It Costs Tesla Money - Jalopnik

This is the published version of the new Forbes Future of Work newsletter, which we launched May 19, and will be sent on Friday mornings with the latest news and insights for chief people officers and other talent leaders on disruptive work-related technologies, managing the future workforce and trends in the ongoing remote work debate. Click here to sign up!

Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

Greetings from an apparent member of the laptop classbillionaire Elon Musks latest sneer at remote work, which he grumbled this week is morally wrongand welcome to the debut issue of Forbes Future of Work newsletter.

In a CNBC interview this week, speaking about service and manufacturing workers, Musk said its messed up to assume that, yes, they have to go to work, but you dont. Its not just a productivity thing, I think its morally wrong, suggesting the laptop class is living in la-la land.

That argument, while acknowledging the disparate class impact of the pandemic, ignores the morally positive benefits of remote worka smaller environmental footprint from fewer commutes, more time for working parents to spend with children and more job opportunities for those not based in larger cities. Contributor Gleb Tsipursky called out the irony this way: Remote work is not a manifestation of entitlement; rather, it is an innovative solution to an unforeseen global challenge the kind of innovation Musk champions in his ambitious ventures.

Below, I hope youll find insights on more substantive debatesand what you really need to know about where work is headed from the week that passedin our brand new newsletter. Let us know what you think!

San Francisco-based Instawork, which pairs hourly workers with companies that need to fill shifts, announced a $60 million Series D Thursday to expand its use of AI, saying it will help better identify and match workers on its mobile app and platform. Co-founder and CEO Sumir Meghani will be speaking at Forbes Future of Work Summit June 1; you can register to attend virtually here.

Layoffs may be mounting, but the unemployment rate is still at record lows, and a thought-provoking report from the Harvard Project on the Workforce spotlights the under-realized promise public workforce programs have in helping American workers, writes contributor and Jobs for the Future president and CEO Maria Flynn.

A recently-amended lawsuit filed in Philadelphias Court of Common Pleas that adds new defendants to a suit against gig economy platforms underscores how such companies can shift accountability when it comes to independent contractors, legal experts told Forbes Cyrus Farivar.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman voiced support for more AI regulation while testifying at a historic congressional hearing Tuesday, saying intervention by governments would be critical and suggesting a Cabinet-level organization to keep up with AI development. (Worried? Randstad CEO Sander van t Noordende says these are the leadership skills that cant be replicated by AI.)

The hearing came as advancements in AI keep proliferating, with Microsoft recently expanding its Copilot AI tool to 600 customers and wanting to automate medical notes with GPT-4. Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabets stock got a rare downgrade despite the companys rollout of a host of new AI products as it tries to be both bold and responsible.

Canva Global Head of People Jennie Rogerson

Canvas Rogerson has an untraditional background, with a career in hospitality before joining design unicorn Canva as an executive assistant and quickly moving into leadership roles. I caught up with Rogerson earlier this yearhere are five takeaways from our chat, which have been edited for length and clarity.

What have been your biggest priorities as Canva has grown so quickly?

Last January, we intentionally set a philosophy called fewer hires well. We were keen on hitting profitability for our sixth year in a row [and] wanting to make sure our headcount costs were in line. But then that phrase fewer hires well cascaded into other things. Now we call it fewer things well. We're really certain of what goals we want to hit and really try and let go of the noise of the other stuff.

Have you had any job cuts? Are you planning any?

No, we've not cut jobs. We've just intentionally been really strong on how big do we want to be and what roles do we really need. No, not planning on it. Were really going as much as we can into planning versus anything near layoffs.

Whats a key focus for you as you look at the year ahead?

Pre-pandemic, technology downfallsor paper cuts, as we call themwere kind of fine. But being a globally remote team, if you stumble across under-cooked processes or technology that doesn't enable you, those paper cuts really add up over time. That's one of our key focuses this year: Looking at what are our tools that are enabling [us] to run really quickly.

How much of Canva is remote?

Were incredibly fortunate that the office is still jam-packed. Someone came in the other day as an external and said have you got an event? Oh no, it's just a Tuesday. [A spokesperson says the majority of Canva works hybrid schedules.]

With so many layoffs, do you think the social contract is shifting in what workers expect from tech companies?

When there were lots of layoffs [in the broader tech sector], what stability could we give our team? ... That's kind of the angle that I'm taking. Things will change. You've seen it in the last year. I think really being on the pulse of how people feel rather than looking externally is the way I'm riding through this next year or so. Really listening, thats my main thing.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency overseeing human resources for the U.S. government, proposed a new rule last week that would prohibit the use of an applicants salary history in federal employment offers:

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Elon Musk's 'Morally Wrong' Remote Work Gripe Misses Its Many ... - Forbes