Meta employees absolutely hate Zuckerberg’s plan to hold a company-wide AI hackathon

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s internal announcement on Friday of a “big” company-wide AI hackathon next month sparked frustration and disbelief among employees.

In internal messages seen by WIRED, some workers wrote that additional responsibilities in the wake of recent mass layoffs at the tech giant left them little time to engage in such additional activities. Others said they felt discouraged from participating because of what they saw as low morale and declining trust in management across the company.

“I’m literally busy keeping the lights on for my team,” one employee wrote on Friday. “I have no incentive to participate, let alone have the time to do so.”

In a post shared with Meta’s nearly 70,000 employees, Zuckerberg framed the hackathon as a way for employees to build camaraderie at a time of widespread internal turmoil. Ime Archibong, vice president of product management at Meta, later shared additional details about the event, which he said will take place from July 14-16 and will focus “exclusively on AI innovation.”

Archibong’s post sparked quick reactions from several employees, who responded with angry messages and sarcastic memes. “I’m not sure this company supports hackathon culture anymore,” one employee wrote in a comment that received more than 200 likes and heartfelt reactions. “People are being asked to cover more work with less support while their colleagues are laid off, while also trying to avoid the risk of causing SEV1s.” [serious technical errors] With the incautious use of artificial intelligence.

The same employee claimed that hackathon efforts would not count toward performance evaluations, fueling frustration among workers about the prospect of other projects being assigned to participate.

Dozens of people also reacted by laughing and liking a meme inspired by the comedy film We are the millsSaying, “Do you have enough time for the hackathon?”

“Honestly, I don’t have enough time to focus on this and am expected to be 100% dedicated” to regular work, another employee wrote. “I’ve participated in previous hackathons, but that’s no longer an option besides sprints in my corner of the company.”

A third employee described what he described as a “disappointing change in culture” because “I don’t think there’s enough of a sense of security to spend time on hackathon innovations.”

Meta declined to comment for this story.

Meta has long hosted internal hackathons, but two sources told WIRED that this is the first company-wide event held since laying off 8,000 people last month.

One Meta software engineer responded to some employee complaints by saying that everyone is encouraged to participate. But the message has not arrived yet. “Every organization I know has very aggressive goals, with the expectation of achieving efficiency gains and significantly reducing headcount,” commented one employee. “There is less time to focus on other axes.”

The hackathon was one of several initiatives Zuckerberg launched on Friday to revitalize his workforce and address internal criticism over recent layoffs and other concerns. He said budgets for working outside team sites will increase, and that the concept of hot desking, or workers who are in the office only part of the time having to share desks, will be eliminated in some offices.

Last year, some workers came together to survey colleagues about removing their desks and the chaos and loss of productivity they believe it caused, according to a person familiar with the effort who requested anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. The group urged management to return to each employee having their own space. Layoffs appear to have opened the door, leaving less time for a breakout.