Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s internal announcement on Friday about the company’s “huge” AI hackathon next month quickly sparked frustration and disbelief among employees.
In internal messages seen by WIRED, some employees wrote that additional responsibilities after multiple layoffs at the tech company left them with little time to join additional activities. Others said they felt discouraged from participating because of what they saw as low morale and low trust in management across the company.
“I’m busy keeping the lights on for my team,” wrote one employee on Friday. “I don’t have the motivation to participate, let alone the time to do so.”
In a post shared with Meta’s estimated 70,000 employees, Zuckerberg pitched the hackathon as a way for employees to bond during a time of rampant internal violence. Ime Archibong, vice president of product management at Meta, later shared more details about the event, which he said will take place from July 14 to July 16 and is focused “solely on AI Innovation.”
Archibong’s post quickly drew backlash from several employees, who responded with angry messages and sarcastic memes. “I’m not sure if this company supports hackathon culture,” one employee wrote in a comment that drew more than 200 thumbs up and heart reactions. “People are being asked to do more work with less support while their colleagues are laid off, while also trying to avoid the risk of causing SEV1s. [serious technical errors] by using AI carelessly.”
The same employee suspected that the manipulation efforts would not be subject to performance evaluations, fueling frustration among employees about the prospect of setting aside other projects in order to participate.
A lot of people also reacted by laughing and slapping a meme inspired by the comedy film. We are millerssaying, “You all have time for the hackathon?”
“I don’t have time to focus on this, and I’m expected to be completely dedicated” to regular work, another employee wrote. “I have participated in previous hackathons but this no longer feels like an option alongside pod sprints in my corner of the company.”
A third employee called what they described as a “disappointing change in culture” because “I don’t believe there’s enough of a sense of security to spend time on hackathon innovations.”
Meta declined to comment on this story.
Meta has long hosted internal hackathons, but two sources tell WIRED that this is the first for the company since 8,000 people were laid off last month.
A veteran Meta software engineer responded to some of the employee complaints by saying that everyone is encouraged to participate. But the message didn’t come across well. “Every organization I know has very aggressive goals, high performance expectations and a very small workforce,” commented an employee in response. “There is little time to focus on another axis.”
The hackathon was one of several initiatives Zuckerberg laid out Friday to bolster his workforce and address internal criticism over recent layoffs and other concerns. He said that the budget for the work of non-working groups will be increased and the concept of hot decking, or office workers only sharing desks, will be eliminated in some offices.
Last year, some workers got together to check in with their colleagues about the removal of their desks and the chaos and loss of productivity they believe it caused, according to a person familiar with the effort who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. This group urged the management to return to each worker having his own place. The layoffs appear to have freed up space, while leaving little time for robbery.
