xAI Engineer Says He Worked 36 Hours Straight — Colleagues Praise, Critics Warn About Safety and Culture

Parsa Tajik, an engineer at xAI, posted that he left the office after "~36 hours of working with no sleep," sharing a photo from inside his Tesla Cybertruck. The post drew enthusiastic praise from colleagues, a reaction from Elon Musk, and sharp criticism from outside observers who raised safety and cultural concerns.

Colleagues cheer the effort

Responses from fellow xAI employees flooded the thread. One coworker wrote, "And got 192 hours' worth of work done. Bro is a unicorn among unicorns." Another colleague commented, "Incredibly grateful to be working with and learning from you," and others replied with salutes and emojis. Ayush Jaiswal, an xAI employee, joked while defending the company's pace: "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." Elon Musk reacted to Jaiswal's comment with a laughing-crying emoji.

Safety concerns and public reaction

The post also prompted concern online about the risks of extreme sleep deprivation. Jason Ginsberg, head of product engineering at Cursor, warned that staying awake for 36 hours is comparable to a blood alcohol concentration of roughly 0.16% — about double the common legal driving limit — calling the post "like bragging that you drove home drunk."

"Last night I left the @xAI office after ~36 hours of working with no sleep... Although I was dead, I was also super energized. Incredibly grateful to be a part of this team. Happy Thanksgiving!" — Parsa Tajik

In a follow-up reply three days later, Tajik wrote that he "apologized to nobody," adding that his Tesla — equipped with Full Self-Driving — carpooled with two other engineers and took him home safely. He framed long hours as part of his personal journey: "I've been working long hours for many years. This is how I got to @xAI from practically being homeless in 2020. Exceptional results require exceptional effort. Now is not the time to slow down."

Context: xAI and Musk's work culture

The episode renewed scrutiny of the demanding cultures associated with Elon Musk's companies. xAI has experienced a tumultuous autumn that included mass layoffs and leadership changes; at a September all-hands meeting a leader said there were no further planned cuts, yet the company later eliminated more than 100 positions. xAI has also moved quickly on product releases — notably launching Grok-1 in November 2023 after roughly four months of development — and PitchBook estimated a July valuation in the tens of billions.

Stories of long shifts are familiar in accounts of Musk-led companies: employees at Tesla have reportedly slept in their cars or on the factory floor during production surges, and after Musk's takeover of Twitter staff were urged to embrace an "extremely hardcore" schedule or face layoffs. The debate around Tajik's post highlights the tension between rapid innovation and worker safety and well-being.

What to watch: Conversations around workplace expectations, worker health and safety, and the trade-offs between speed and sustainability at high-growth AI companies are likely to continue as xAI and others scale.