Friday morning, Mark Zuckerberg sent a message to 70,000 Meta employees announcing a companywide AI hackathon for mid-July. By Friday afternoon, the internal Slack channels were full of memes, angry comments, and employees explaining why they couldn't possibly participate.
The backlash was swift and brutal. One engineer posted: "I'm literally preoccupied with keeping the lights on for my team. I have no incentive to participate, let alone have the time to do so." Another wrote a comment that got over 200 reactions calling the hackathon a "disappointing change in culture" when people don't feel safe taking time away from their regular work. Someone shared a meme from the movie We're the Millers with the caption: "You all have the time for a hackathon?"
Here's the context Zuckerberg left out of his announcement: Meta fired 8,000 people last month. That's roughly 11% of the workforce gone in one round. The remaining staff inherited their projects. And now they're being asked to spend three days in July on something that won't count toward their performance reviews.
Ime Archibong, a VP of product at Meta, posted more details about the July 14-16 event, emphasizing it would focus "exclusively on AI Innovation." Employees responded by pointing out the obvious contradiction. One staffer wrote: "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." Another commented: "Every org I know has super aggressive goals, with efficiency gains expected and significantly less staffing. There's less time for focusing on other axis."
When a Meta engineering veteran tried to smooth things over by saying everyone was "encouraged to participate," it didn't help. The damage was already done. Zuckerberg framed the hackathon as a way to build camaraderie during internal unrest. What employees heard was: take time away from the work we're already drowning in, don't get credit for it, and do it for team spirit.
The real problem isn't the hackathon itself—Meta has hosted them for years. It's the timing and the gap between what leadership is asking for and what the company actually feels like right now. After mass layoffs, people aren't thinking about innovation. They're thinking about whether they'll be next.