Meta Employees Call Work 'Soul-Crushing' as Zuckerberg Admits Restructuring Mistakes Amid Company-Wide Morale Crisis

Meta is in the grip of a company-wide morale crisis, with thousands of employees calling their work 'soul-crushing,' over 1,600 signing a petition against keystroke monitoring, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitting restructuring mistakes in an internal memo while promising no further mass layoffs and pledging workplace improvements.

• Meta's Applied AI unit, formed in March with roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers, is facing a severe morale crisis, with employees describing the work as 'soul-crushing' and comparing the unit to 'the gulag' due to menial tasks like generating AI benchmark puzzles.
• Tensions are boiling over company-wide, with over 1,600 employees signing a petition against a keystroke-monitoring program, a disruptive outburst occurring during a live all-hands call, and Meta's chief product officer openly acknowledging the 'brutal' and chaotic environment employees are enduring.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg addresses the turmoil in an internal memo, admitting mistakes were made during the restructuring, promising no further mass layoffs this year, and pledging improvements including better manager-to-employee ratios, increased team event budgets, and assigned desks by year's end.