A Los Angeles man secretly never leaves work. He says the life hack helped him accomplish his dreams

In what might sound like a nightmare to many, in 2012, a Los Angeles man lived in his office for 500 days. But he says his quality of life improved, and because of the unique living situation, he says he accomplished his dream.

It began as an emergency fix to crippling rent, but it became a deliberate lifestyle experiment for the writer who uses the pseudonym “Terry K.” In a first-person essay published on Salon, Terry describes renting out his Venice Beach apartment and moving into his production-office space in the summer of 2012.

He slept under his desk, used office bathrooms and kitchens, and learned to navigate busy workdays while hiding the fact that his “home” was a cubicle and conference-room-adjacent nook.

The arrangement saved him thousands and, he says, allowed him to focus on creative projects, writing a novel, and career goals that otherwise would have been derailed by the cost of living in Los Angeles.

A makeshift sleeping area and a gym membership

The specifics of Terry K.’s workplace setup illustrate how unusual — but not impossible — this kind of arrangement can be. He wrote about creating a makeshift sleeping area beneath a desk, timing comings and goings to avoid colleagues, and improvising privacy in a space never intended for habitation.

He said he showered at the gym and cleaned everything up before his coworkers arrived. And crucially, Terry managed his exit; he secured a new apartment and quit his job, meaning he was never officially discovered or fired by his employer.

Living at work — don’t try it at home

As unusual as it might seem, Terry K. is not alone. Over the past decade, there have been other documented instances of people secretly living at work or in corporate spaces. In 2012, a 19-year-old entrepreneur named Eric Simons admitted to living on AOL’s Palo Alto campus for roughly two months while building a startup, using company food and facilities while he worked nights.

More recently, videos of a TikToker who moved into his office cubicle to cope with rent increases went viral in 2022 and ended with the worker’s firing after management discovered the stunt. Those episodes show a range of motives — from entrepreneurship to protest to sheer necessity — and different outcomes, from quiet exits to public fallout.

For readers considering Terry K.’s “life hack,” there are risks, beyond just losing your job. Living at work can reduce expenses and buy time to pursue goals, but it raises legal, ethical, and safety questions: workplace policies, insurance, security, and the toll of secrecy on mental health. Terry’s essay frames his choice as ultimately empowering — a controversial success story in the squeeze of big-city living — but journalists who covered similar cases stress that such arrangements are risky and often unsustainable.