A hot potato: In an era where we're told to have a work-life balance and not grind ourselves to death, it's depressing to see xAI employees publicly cheer a colleague for working 36 hours without sleep. Unsurprisingly, his boss, Elon Musk, who demands we live and sleep at the office while simultaneously having more babies, gave his seal of approval.
xAI employee Parsa Tajik wrote on X that he recently left the company's office after 36 hours of working without sleep. "Although I was dead, I was also super energized. Incredibly grateful to be a part of this team. Happy Thanksgiving!" he wrote.
Tajik's post received a few positive comments, although most of them came from his colleagues. Fellow employee Ayush Jaiswal wrote, "Work life balance is great, in-fact we recommend it to all our competitors. Don't be angry with this post. You're free to disagree & let us cook :)"
Work life balance is great, in-fact we recommend it to all our competitors.
– Ayush Jaiswal (@ayushjaiswal) November 29, 2025
Don't be angry with this post. You're free to disagree & let us cook :) https://t.co/SjzL0xs2m0
Even Musk joined in the fun, though the single crying with laughter emoji he replied with seemed quite noncommittal.
😂
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2025
Musk, of course, has long argued that work should come before everything else. He famously slept on the floor of the Tesla factory during the Model 3's production.
Musk appears to have a passionate hatred for working from home, too. There was also the "hardcore" work culture of 60-hour-average weeks he demanded Twitter employees agree to or quit, which led to one former exec being awarded $600,000 in an unfair dismissal case.
But Musk constantly warns about the world's declining birth rates – the world's richest man often says that he's done his part by having 14 children. Ironically, this decline is partly due to people working so much as they need the money or fear they'll lose their jobs if they don't.
In a follow-up post, Tajik wrote that he has been working long hours for many years, and it's how he went from almost being homeless in 2020 to joining xAI.
However, plenty of people have pointed out the difference between working hard to achieve success and being exploited in a reckless manner that comes with health risks. There are also studies showing that working incredibly long hours can negatively impact productivity – this one found that the most productive workers "rest" almost two and a half hours during an 8-hour workday.
As one person replied, "Sacrificing your health and sanity for someone who would replace you in a heartbeat is not a flex."
Musk isn't the only person known for praising an extreme work ethic. Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy recently raised his call for a 70-hour workweek to 72 hours. He also praised China's brutal – and outlawed – 996 work culture, which involves working 9am to 9pm, six days per week.
xAI employee praised by collegues for working 36 hours without sleep
And I bet fElon will be there to Eulogize this employee.
