Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s internal announcement on Friday about a “large” companywide AI hackathon next month quickly sparked frustration and disbelief among employees.
In internal messages seen by WIRED, some workers wrote that added responsibilities in the wake of recent mass layoffs at the tech giant had left them with little time to join such ancillary activities. Others said they felt discouraged from participating because of what they viewed as low morale and declining trust in management across the company.
“I’m literally preoccupied with 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 to Meta’s roughly 70,000 employees, Zuckerberg framed the hackathon as a way for staff to build camaraderie at a time of widespread internal unrest. Ime Archibong, a vice president of product management at Meta, later shared additional details about the event, which he said would take place from July 14 to July 16 and focus “exclusively on AI Innovation.”
Archibong’s post drew swift pushback from several employees, who responded with angry messages and sarcastic memes. “I’m not sure that this company supports a hackathon culture anymore,” one employee wrote in a comment that drew more than 200 thumbs-up and heart reactions. “People are being asked to cover more work with less support while their colleagues get laid off, while also trying to avoid the risk of causing SEV1s [serious technical errors] with incautious AI use.”
The same employee alleged that hackathon efforts would not count toward performance evaluations, fueling frustration among the workers about the prospect of setting aside other projects to participate.
Dozens of people also reacted with laughs and thumbs-up to a meme inspired by the comedy film We’re the Millers, stating, “You all have the time for a hackathon?”
“I honestly don’t have the time to focus on this, and I’m expected to be 100% devoted” to regular work, another employee wrote. “I’ve participated in previous hackathons but this no longer feels like an option alongside pod sprints in my corner of the company.”
A third staffer called out what they described as “a disappointing change in culture” because “I don’t believe there is sufficient feeling of safety to spend time on hackathon innovations.”
Meta declined to comment for this story.
Meta has long hosted internal hackathons, but two sources tell WIRED this is the first companywide one to take place since 8,000 people were laid off last month.
A Meta software engineering veteran responded to some of the employee complaints by saying that everyone is encouraged to participate. But the message still didn’t quite land. “Every org I know has super aggressive goals, with efficiency gains expected and significantly less staffing,” an employee commented back. “There’s less time for focusing on other axis.”
The hackathon was one of several initiatives Zuckerberg laid out on Friday to reenergize his workforce and address internal criticism about the recent layoffs and other concerns. He said budgets for team offsites would increase and that the concept of hot desking, or workers only in the office part of the time having to share desks, would be done away with in some offices.
Last year, some workers banded together to survey colleagues about the removal of their desks and the chaos and lost productivity they believe it caused, according to a person familiar with the efforts who sought anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. The group urged management to return to every employee having their own space. The layoffs appear to have opened up room, while leaving less time to hack.