Roland Li<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n May 18, 2023 Updated: May 19, 2023 2:12\u00a0p.m. (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco officials are opening a new investigation aimed at Twitter\u2019s Mid-Market headquarters after an explosive lawsuit from former senior employees alleged numerous instances where members of owner Elon Musk\u2019s team knowingly broke local and federal laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The six former employees say Twitter didn\u2019t pay promised severance and that Musk\u2019s team instructed staff to disable lights and install locks that wouldn\u2019t open during an emergency at employee bedrooms at 1355 Market St.<\/a>, violating building codes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTwitter\u2019s new leadership deliberately, specifically, and repeatedly announced their intentions to breach contracts, violate laws, and otherwise ignore their legal obligations,\u201d the six former employees alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Delaware federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suit names Twitter\u2019s successor company X Corp. and Musk as defendants. Twitter, which laid off its communications team, auto-replied to an emailed request for comment with a poop emoji.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will be opening a new complaint and conducting an investigation into these new allegations,\u201d Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for the city\u2019s Department of Building Inspection, told The Chronicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plaintiff Joseph Killian, the former Twitter lead project manager of global design and construction, described Musk\u2019s team allegedly telling him to violate building codes as part of creating rooms for tired employees to sleep in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to installing beds, Killian said he was told to disconnect motion-sensitive lights because they were bothering people trying to sleep, despite Twitter\u2019s landlord rejecting that request. He said he hired an electrician to do so, allegedly violating both the building code and Twitter\u2019s lease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Killian also said he was told to install space heaters, violating the lease, and install door locks that \u201cwere not compliant with life safety and egress codes\u201d because they wouldn\u2019t automatically unlock in case of fire or earthquake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Killian said that doing so would block \u201cfirst responders from being able to access the rooms\u201d in case of emergency, but that Musk\u2019s team wanted cheaper locks that wouldn\u2019t automatically unlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNobody cared,\u201d the lawsuit stated. \u201cKillian quit that day.\u201d The lawsuit alleges that non-compliant locks were later installed by someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Killian said that he was told not to detail these planned changes when city inspectors visited the building in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen the city inspectors came to inspect the hotel rooms, they expressed surprise and relief to Killian, saying, \u2018This is just furniture! We expected more drastic changes,\u2019\u2009\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The city previously ruled Twitter needed to update a building permit<\/a> to come into compliance and allow for areas for workers to sleep in. But six months after the bedroom investigation started, the permit has not been approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other five plaintiffs include Wolfram Arnold, a former staff software engineer; Erik Froese, former software engineering senior manager; Tracy Hawkins, who led Twitter\u2019s real estate division<\/a>; Laura Chan Pytlarz, former global strategy lead of food and events; and Andrew Schlaikjer, former senior staff machine learning engineer. They couldn\u2019t immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawkins said she quit after Twitter stopped paying vendors or its office landlords, an alleged move that has also sparked numerous lawsuits<\/a>, including from Shorenstein, Twitter\u2019s San Francisco headquarters landlord. Twitter had over $130 million in annual office rent obligations, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cElon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body,\u201d Musk adviser Pablo Mendoza allegedly told Hawkins, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawsuit alleges that Musk\u2019s attorney Alex Spiro \u201cloudly opined that it was unreasonable for Twitter\u2019s landlords to expect Twitter to pay rent, since San Francisco was a s\u2014 hole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arnold, Froese, Pytlarz and Schlaikjer allege that they were fired and not paid \u201ccontractually required severance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaintiffs are seeking severance, punitive damages for \u201cflagrant bad faith,\u201d alleged fraud and alleged violation of local and federal laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reach Roland Li: roland.li@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @rolandlisf<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Written By Roland Li<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Roland Li covers commercial real estate for the business desk, focusing on the Bay Area office and retail sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was previously a reporter at San Francisco Business Times, where he won one award from the California News Publishers Association and three from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is the author of \u201cGood Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports,” a 2016 book on the history of the competitive video game industry. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2015, he studied and worked in New York. He freelanced for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other local publications. His hobbies include swimming and urban photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In explosive lawsuit, ex-employees say severance wasn’t paid, building codes violated Roland Li May 18, 2023 Updated: May 19, 2023 2:12\u00a0p.m. (SFChronicle.com) San Francisco officials are opening a new investigation aimed at Twitter\u2019s Mid-Market headquarters after an explosive lawsuit from former senior employees alleged numerous instances where members of owner… Continue reading ![\"Tracy](\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/32\/74\/72\/23842481\/3\/1200x0.jpg\")
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