‘We did an atrocious job’: Meta CTO says employees’ morale near ‘worst level’ amid mass layoffs

During an internal “Tuesdays with Boz” meeting on June 2, Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, also known inside the company as “Boz,” said employee morale is among the lowest he has seen during his two decades at the company. 

“Maybe not the worst it’s ever been in 20 years here, but it’s probably up there. It’s definitely up there,” Bosworth told employees, according to Wired, citing people who attended the call. 

He said the only period that may have been worse was the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when data belonging to millions of Facebook users was improperly used to target voters during the 2016 US election. 

In May, Meta cut around 10% of its workforce. The company said the layoffs were needed as it continued spending heavily on artificial intelligence projects. Around the same time, Meta reassigned roughly another 10% of employees to help train its AI models.

Meta acknowledges employee frustration 

Bosworth said recent employee feedback had played a major role in shaping the changes now being introduced. “We’ve undermined the trust you have that your specific expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you can actually have an impact,” Bosworth wrote. 

Boz also admitted that repeated organisational changes had left many employees feeling unsettled. “We shook up the management structure that was providing you stability while rapid changes in strategy, including the boom/bust cycle of hiring, left entire teams in the lurch,” he added.

The remarks come after reports of dissatisfaction within the Applied AI unit. Some employees reportedly felt the work they were assigned was repetitive and lacked meaning, with one worker even describing the experience as “a gulag.” 

Bosworth’s memo outlined several steps the company plans to take to address those concerns. Under the new plans, managers will oversee fewer employees, with Meta aiming to limit each manager to roughly 20 direct reports.

The company will also try to reduce how often workers are reassigned to new managers during reorganisations. 

‘We did an atrocious job’ 

Responding to comments about the Applied AI team, Bosworth accepted responsibility for how the rollout was handled. He said Meta’s leadership became so focused on achieving strategic goals, including competing in the fast-growing market for AI coding tools, that they lost sight of how the changes affected employees. 

“We obviously did an atrocious job explaining the vision, giving people a clear picture of how we would support them and their careers in the shift, and painting a picture of how it would change over time,” Bosworth wrote, according to WIRED.

At the same time, he defended the decision to move employees into the AI division quickly.

According to Bosworth, speed was critical, and employees should expect periods where they may have to work on projects they do not personally enjoy. “There are going to be times where the work requires sacrifice,” he said, adding that employees may sometimes find themselves working on assignments they “don’t find as personally fulfilling for a while.” 

Employees can now apply for other roles 

Meanwhile, in a separate internal message shared last Friday, Maher Saba, the vice president leading the Applied AI division, told employees who had been moved into the group that they would now be free to seek other positions within Meta if they could secure them. 

“We felt it was necessary to leverage what Meta has that those other [AI] labs don’t: our scale and our people’s expertise,” Saba wrote. However, he said the company is now changing course.

“Moving forward, we are returning to business as usual and giving people the agency to apply to roles that interest them.”

AI won’t replace workers, Bosworth says 

Bosworth also addressed concerns about artificial intelligence replacing employees.

He said Meta does not believe AI will completely replace human workers. However, he warned employees that AI skills will become increasingly important.

“We should heed the saying, ‘AI won’t take your job but someone who knows AI might,’” Bosworth wrote.

According to him, employee performance will not be judged simply on whether they use AI tools, but on the impact they create with them.

The company is also easing restrictions on workers who were moved to AI-related projects. Employees reassigned to the AI task force will now be allowed to apply for other positions within Meta if they choose.