An employee at a consultancy firm who was caught living in his office so he could live 'rent-free' was subsequently sacked after his boss found out what he was doing. Take a look at the saga unfold below:
While many office workers have experimented with taking their lunches 'al-desko', this TikToker decided to go one step further.
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Chibuzor Ejimofor, who uses the name Simon Jackson professionally, has amassed a staggering 13 million views on TikTok after he documented his conversion of an office cubicle into a living - and sleeping - space.
The 28-year-old went viral when he announced on the video streaming platform 'I am moving from my apartment into my cubicle at work'.
His video, titled: "Check out my new [apartment]", tracks Jackson loading his clothes into his desk storage and unpacking his sleeping bag out of a suitcase. Jackson says that the office space he moved into was empty 'because everyone's working from home, so I just thought, why not move there?'
“When I found my company had an empty office downtown, this was the perfect solution as it was close to all of the venues I frequent and it would be free” he told the New York Post.
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He justified his unorthodox living arrangements saying: "They do not pay me enough to do both, so as a matter of protest, I am just going to live at my job, and we'll see how long I can get away with this."
As it happened, he didn’t get away with it for very long.
Four days after he posted his stunt online, he received a call from the human resources department at his employer, Arcadis.
Jackson claims that Arcadis ordered him to clear his belongings from his desk and to delete his social media videos or else be fired.
In the face of this ultimatum, Jackson says that he chose to leave the company.
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Jackson has since described the stunt as a 'protest', aimed at drawing attention to the difficulty of affording an apartment in Seattle on his current salary.
He remains optimistic about his future, however, and has since been staying at a Seattle Airbnb.
He hopes to refocus on a new career, commenting: “I’ve gotten so many views now, so maybe I can take that and work on building my brand.”
Despite parting their separate ways, Jackson does not bear his ex-employer any ill-will.
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“I wish they approached the TikToks differently and maybe had a conversation with me about whether there was something more serious going on in terms of money,” he later said to Insider.
“But do I understand their response? 100 percent.”
When asked for comment on Jackson’s actions at the firm by the NY Post, Arcadis responded: "Due to privacy concerns relating to personnel information, the company is not at liberty to disclose any matters regarding current or former employees without express employee permission."
Alex Fleming-Brown