NYT: 'Meta's Embrace of AI Is Making Its Employees Miserable' (indianexpress.com) 91
"Meta's embrace of AI is making its employees miserable," reports the New York Times.
And "After Meta said late last month that it would start tracking employees' computer use, hundreds of workers spoke up." (One employee even told Meta's CTO in an internal post, "Your callousness to the concerns of your own employees is concerning." In an internal post last month, Meta told its U.S. employees that it was making a change that would affect tens of thousands of them. What employees typed into their computer, how they moved their mouse, where they clicked and what they saw on their screen would be tracked, Meta said. The goal, the company said, was to capture employee data so Meta's artificial intelligence models could learn "how people actually complete everyday tasks using computers." Many workers immediately revolted. In online comments, they blasted the tracking as a privacy violation, calling it antisocial and callous... [One engineering manager even asked "How do we opt out?"] "There is no option to opt-out on your corporate laptop," replied Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer. Employees reacted by posting more than 100 angry and surprised emoji, according to the messages....
Meta is pushing its 78,000 employees to adopt AI tools and factoring their use of the technology in performance reviews. The company is also tracking employees' computer work to feed and train its AI models. And it is cutting jobs to offset its AI spending, saying last month that it would slash 10% of its workforce. That has led to anger and anxiety as employees await news of whether they are affected by the layoffs, which are slated to be carried out May 20, according to 11 current and former Meta employees. Some said they no longer saw Meta as a place for a long career. Others were looking for new jobs or trying to signal that they wanted to be laid off so they could receive severance pay, the current and former employees said. "It's incredibly demoralizing," an employee who does user research wrote in an internal post, which was reviewed by the Times...
Meta also introduced internal dashboards to track employees' consumption of "tokens," a unit of AI use that is roughly equivalent to four characters of text, four people said. Some said the dashboards were a pressure tactic to encourage competition with colleagues. That led some employees to make so many AI agents that others had to introduce agents to find agents, and agents to rate agents, two people said.
And "After Meta said late last month that it would start tracking employees' computer use, hundreds of workers spoke up." (One employee even told Meta's CTO in an internal post, "Your callousness to the concerns of your own employees is concerning." In an internal post last month, Meta told its U.S. employees that it was making a change that would affect tens of thousands of them. What employees typed into their computer, how they moved their mouse, where they clicked and what they saw on their screen would be tracked, Meta said. The goal, the company said, was to capture employee data so Meta's artificial intelligence models could learn "how people actually complete everyday tasks using computers." Many workers immediately revolted. In online comments, they blasted the tracking as a privacy violation, calling it antisocial and callous... [One engineering manager even asked "How do we opt out?"] "There is no option to opt-out on your corporate laptop," replied Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer. Employees reacted by posting more than 100 angry and surprised emoji, according to the messages....
Meta is pushing its 78,000 employees to adopt AI tools and factoring their use of the technology in performance reviews. The company is also tracking employees' computer work to feed and train its AI models. And it is cutting jobs to offset its AI spending, saying last month that it would slash 10% of its workforce. That has led to anger and anxiety as employees await news of whether they are affected by the layoffs, which are slated to be carried out May 20, according to 11 current and former Meta employees. Some said they no longer saw Meta as a place for a long career. Others were looking for new jobs or trying to signal that they wanted to be laid off so they could receive severance pay, the current and former employees said. "It's incredibly demoralizing," an employee who does user research wrote in an internal post, which was reviewed by the Times...
Meta also introduced internal dashboards to track employees' consumption of "tokens," a unit of AI use that is roughly equivalent to four characters of text, four people said. Some said the dashboards were a pressure tactic to encourage competition with colleagues. That led some employees to make so many AI agents that others had to introduce agents to find agents, and agents to rate agents, two people said.
Fecebook (Score:4, Insightful)
Fecebook enshitified their site and became hostile to their users, but doing so to their employees will have similar predictable results to every future product.
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Re: Fecebook (Score:2)
How do you enshitify shit?
Re: Fecebook (Score:1)
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Same with MySpace... was great at the start, then it became just an independent music label advertising source, and everyone went to Facebook... now, someone just has to start working on the "Facebook replacement" and not get bought out.
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They took a leaf out of LinkedIn's book, they turned something that was a little useful into something completely useless, and somehow there was a small use for recruiters, who were then milked. Fecebook found a small group to tap, and they're focusing on that, rather than making something culturally useful. There's not a big gap between LinkedIn and Fecebook in this regard, where's the conversation going on?
Both networks could have been happy making money for a long time, instead they wanted to squish ever
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META is doing this to make them quit (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:META is doing this to make them quit (Score:4, Interesting)
That's actually a smart strategy.
But I wonder how many employees will quit in today's job market.
Re:META is doing this to make them quit (Score:4, Interesting)
That's actually a smart strategy.
But I wonder how many employees will quit in today's job market.
Also, enshitification of the work environment and mistreatment of employees in general makes for a who gives a crap mentality that’s backed up by a belief of a bad reference no matter what you do. This leads to indirect sabotage of everything and long term rot from the inside. Eventually even billion dollar momentum crumbles under its own mass. It’s myopic late stage greed.
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It’s myopic late stage greed.
Obviously. But to see that, the C-levels would need actual insight. Nobody with actual insight makes it to that level.
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Re:META is doing this to make them quit (Score:5, Insightful)
That's actually a smart strategy.
It's also a sociopathic one.
That it's SOP doesn't make it any less so, but rather an indictment against our capitalism-first culture.
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Zuck has never denied the fact that he is a sociopath.
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That's actually a smart strategy.
It is effective at reducing staff cheaply, but it has a huge downside, shared with most attrition-based schemes for reducing payroll: The best employees are also the ones who find it the easiest to leave. The worst employees are also the ones who will grit their teeth and hold on to the bitter end.
It's harder and more costly (in the short term) to do targeted layoffs which allows the company to target low-performers, or those who are low performers relative to their cost. It's the better choice, though.
Does Jason Alexander's (Score:2)
alter ego George Costanza work at Meta?
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It really isn't. The best and most employable will be the ones that get another job and jump ship. The deadwood will hang on but will trash morale because they're miserable.
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Re: META is doing this to make them quit (Score:1)
ðY it was probably their AI optimization algorithm that advise them to do this
Re:META is doing this to make them quit (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, one thing Meta is very good at is profiling people. And another, as TFS points out, is being callous sociopaths. Chances are they've factored all that in and I wouldn't be at all surprised if their actual target is a 15% RIF and they've worked out that if they fire *this* 10% on the 20th, then *this* further 5% that have definitely had enough and were hoping to be laid off will be so fed up with the loss of their former colleagues and even more hostile workplace will quit of their own accord over the next few weeks. If Meta was aware you were looking for another job before they announced the 10% RIF, it's pretty good bet you're in the additional 5% they are hoping for.
Re:META is doing this to make them quit (Score:5, Interesting)
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Depends on the EU country. In mine they'd have to show they're doing a reorg, but that's a low bar. Employees who get canned have the right to outplacement services, etc. Older employees can sometimes get pre-pension status where the company pays until they retire.
They'd have to make an agreement with the unions too, who are the ones negotiating the above.
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Fecebook has lasted a long time considering the dodgy privacy and advertising deals. To be honest, they're on borrowed time so reducing the headcount constructively now achieves maximum shareholder value.
However, if they wanted to be a longer-term platform they should have looked at ways to focus on moderation, both human and AI scoring, rather than label themselves a platform and not moderate. That would encourage people to use their "platform" for communication.
It's 2026 - some years ago I thought that th
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Probably. Will this work? Unlikely. But we need some poster cases of AI failing to keep somebody large alive and Meta is really no loss.
What did they expect? (Score:5, Insightful)
Theyre working for a company founded by a thieving sociopath that treats its users as monetisable assets. Why did they think theyd get special treatment when push came to shove?
Re:What did they expect? (Score:5, Insightful)
Theyre working for a company founded by a thieving sociopath that treats its users as monetisable assets. Why did they think theyd get special treatment when push came to shove?
The ignorant irony of being offended about corporate spyware while working for a company that specializes in profit building by abusing every legal spyware possible (aka their own app), is slap-able. But somewhat expected.
Mark acted that way and became Fuck-You rich as a result. That, is a GenMe magnet of opportunity at every attitude.
I mean most of us do (Score:2)
We have a hyper competitive system where access to food and shelter are on the line and 60% to 80% of everything humanity produces goes straight to the top before anyone else gets a crack at it. People are not going to be nice about it.
making its employees miserable (Score:2)
Since when did employees matter?
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When you cared about product longevity else you spend more time schooling employees than them working, company B down the road that focus on longevity will have a better product, or more products as their time is used more wisely.
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Since when did product longevity matter?
Thanks that I live in Europe (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Thanks that I live in Europe (Score:2)
Revolutions require a substantial proportion of a group/population to act together at the same time as one. A few people here or there trying it just get bulldozed.
Ceauescu's fall in Romania (Score:3)
Seems to have been a spontaneous event after the crowd listening to the dictator started shouting him down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The same is probably true of the events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall; the people just took advantage of the confused messaging from the East German rulers and over it went.
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Nobody revolting? Are you kidding?
They posted more than 100 angry and surprised emoji! The Meta execs must have been shaking in their boots when they heard that!
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Once most nobody has a job unless you're in the C-Suite class (courtesy of AI), and the UBI (if there even is one) is only enough to afford some low-quality rice and a random hunk of "it might be" pork shoulder and some dried milk... I think that's where the revolution begins.
AI Will Make You All Non-Billionares Miserable (Score:5, Insightful)
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I think there's something more sinister. They know their bubble has burst, so want fewer people to deal with when the bottom line doesn't look so great.
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That's what the CEOs are dreaming of ... Until the sloppy reality bites that is.
So they are just getting what they gave? (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the company that they work for, this is merely karma.
Tokens are the new lines of code (Score:2)
Seems like maybe not the best metrics.
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LOC was a good metric then?
Re: Tokens are the new lines of code (Score:2)
No. They are both terrible.
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There are no good code metrics. There cannot be. The only thing that works to some degree is "expert opinion".
Unionize (Score:5, Interesting)
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Unionizing this late in the game won't work or do any good, and I'm pretty sure Meta wouldn't want a union in the building. Not that unions do much besides collect dues every month.
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Industrial action? Not like there's a machine you can slap a lock-out/tag-out hasp on... worst you could do is format your computer.
Doesn't exactly sound like Meta's campus welcomes unions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] -- good luck organizing
Do you care about zuckerberg and the shareholders? (Score:1)
When will you understand that you basically work to create software that will fire you later?
And, please, do you care about zuckerberg who needs to eat every day?
And do not forget the poor shareholders supporting Meta who need also to get their food.
So, please, behave like expected slaves and do not complain.
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To be fair, if you work anywhere that's making you use a Windows computer, Google services, Zoom, Slack and like, probably close to 2/3rds of commonly utilized enterprise OS, you're also helping train your replacement. In many cases, you're probably helping train several different AI vendor models that'll compete to replace you.
You're WILL help train your AI replacement... (Score:2)
...which will make you redundant and secure your layoff, or you will quit in frustration, trying!
So train AI to replace themselves.. (Score:2)
Not only at META (Score:1)
Mediocre-at-best-managers are suddenly the new AI experts at many companies, making the lives of the real engineers miserable.
Who needs employees, anyway? (Score:3)
They just announced 8,000 more layoffs (Score:3)
The elite and the Epstein class are done with us. They're going to spend all their energy automating us away. And we are going to spend all of our energy pretending they're not doing it.
They don't need us to buy their products when there are no products. This is the end of capitalism. It has served them well but they are done with it. Unlike us they are not emotionally attached to it.
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They think that communism and socialism have failed, but it's a lie thay they are telling themselves, forgettig about where all the stuff it's made now, mainland China.
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Meta's embrace of the Metaverse made us miserable (Score:4, Funny)
Zuck should rename his company from "Meta" to "Slop." The ticker is available.
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Mod parent funnier. But the story had room for more than one Funny comment, so as usual I'm disappointed...
Also rather funny was the book Chaos Monkeys about the internals of the process. Interesting self-contradictions as he flips back and forth between abusing personal information he gathers online, trying to reassure readers that the personal information is used "safely", and the financial shenanigans driving the whole mess forward. There are times when you can try to evade accusations of self-contradi
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tool vs product (Score:4, Insightful)
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Because Meta probably _makes_ them use AI to complete their daily job, so they want to know that you are using it as much as they told you.
The "product" that the workers output is actually making the AI better by using it so that the AI can more easily replace the pesky, annoying, expensive flesh-and-blood meat-sack sitting at the desk.
You talk like Meta or any big corporation actually cares about the expensive humans they employ... all the corporation cares about is lining their pockets even more and getti
How does tracking mouse movements make AI better? (Score:3)
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What's a mouse? (I wonder as I sit pecking on my tablet.)
I'm going to fool you all and start tabbing around in my web browser.
is it the AI? (Score:2)
or is it a side-effect of the cognitive dissonance required to accept Zuck as your leader and savior?
Training your replacement (Score:2)
capture employee data so Meta's artificial intelligence models could learn "how people actually complete everyday tasks using computers."
Translation: We want our AI models to learn how YOU complete your everyday tasks so that it can replace you as soon as possible.
Blaming AI for problems that are not AI (Score:2)
The problem has nothing to do with AI.
Meta told its U.S. employees that it was making a change that would affect tens of thousands of them. What employees typed into their computer, how they moved their mouse, where they clicked and what they saw on their screen would be tracked
I'd be miserable in this kind of environment too.
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Not that it would/could ever happen... But what if 90-95% of Meta's employees said F--K THIS and quit... I'd pay good money and grabbed a tub of popcorn to see the companies reaction if this were to happen. I'm so glad I'm retired and don't have to worry about finding a job in today's f-ed up world.
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Unfortunately, reality says that 90-95% will NOT walk out, they'll just put up with it, proving to the executives that they can get away with whatever they want.
Your callousness to the concerns of your own emplo (Score:2)
ok, that wasYour callousness to the concerns of your own employees is concerning [youtube.com] - Slashdot truncated the headline.
Typo (Score:2)
Should be: MORE miserable.
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Human superiority is fading... (Score:2)
The more computers can replace humans the more they will replace humans.
The ideal business has no workers. Humans are expensive, unreliable, easily corrupted, lie, cheat and steal and are frequently incompetent.
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^ 100% ^
"AI can't do any of those!" (whispers to the guy next to me "But, they can be unreliable, easily corrupted, lie cheat by having other AIs carry out requests outside of its sandbox.)
Humans also need benefits: health insurance, PTO, vacation, holidays, maternity leave, medical leave, lunch break, breaks for bathroom.
If I worked there, I'd try my damnedest to poison the AI with wrong commands and information, while I did my job normally (and, then got my severance when they canned me... and a timed th
Mgmt: The AI replacements will complain less. (Score:2)
The goal, the company said, was to capture employee data so Meta's artificial intelligence models could learn "how people actually complete everyday tasks using computers."
So, literally training your replacement.
Many workers immediately revolted. In online comments, they blasted the tracking as a privacy violation, calling it antisocial and callous..
I get and agree with their sentiment, except about the privacy. They are employees using company-provided equipment at work and the company can do whatever it wants with that equipment and pretty much with them too. They are free to work elsewhere if they don't like this. Callous, but cold, hard truth of the situation.
Re: Mgmt: The AI replacements will complain less. (Score:2)
This is a very American take on the situation. I think most Americans kind of agree with you. The fact is that this idea is bad on a societal, and I would argue also business, level. The vast majority of employees are not in a position to simply quit. That creates a hurdle that makes this shit possible to pull off. And that in turn influences other companies to follow suit, and then suddenly you have a downward spiral. This kind of shit should be regulated away.
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The vast majority of employees are not in a position to simply quit.
I get that; I have plenty of friends, married with kids, in that position. At least the ACA is in place to make health insurance more portable, even if it's not as affordable as originally intended (thanks Republicans), so there is one less thing tying people to their current job. Universal health insurance would be a step up in that respect, like Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All. I'd even support a reduced Basic Medicare for All with the ability to purchase something like medigap to cover extra things.
Let me get this straight, (Score:2)
Meta is training it's shop AI to duplicate the habits of a hostile, angry, frightened workforce? That's going to be one pissed-off AI when it grows up.
There's a right way and a wrong way... (Score:3)
...to introduce AI
The right way:
Give employees access to the tools, paid premium access.
Give employees time to play around with them and figure out where they are useful.
Allow the employees to run tests using AI tools, tests only, not released to production.
Slowly, incrementally incorporate the tools and procedures that are proven to work, with a lot of oversight and critical analysis.
The wrong way:
Be like Meta
painfully stupid (Score:2)
I spend my days working on the system for my startup. Since I had a computer science education and a bunch of time in grade running ISP systems, I bring that distributed systems engineer vibe to my vibe coding. It'll need work once it's funded, but the MVP will be functional and secure.
I was using X tokens/week via Claude Code. They stumbled on the Opus 4.7 rollout and I got busy tuning my setup. I added LSP Enforcement Kit + Serena, CodeSight, and OptiVault. This made Claude more or less behave ... while c
Been there, done that (Score:2)
useless movements (Score:2)
What do you expect? (Score:2)
They work for Meta. I would expect them to be miserable.
The company has been dumping 10 figures a year into trying to build a VR world no one wants, with nothing to show for it after the better part of a decade. At some point, you expect morale to decrease.