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Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

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Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#11

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I guess it's a sign of the times.

I was just reading the old speech by John Barlow, in another post[0]. Sort of dovetails with this.

I spent the majority of my career at a camera manufacturer.

I probably made half of what I could have made, anywhere else, and there were lots of issues, caused by bureaucratic overhead, heavy-handed QA, and cultural misunderstandings.

But not once, during almost 27 years, did I wonder "Are we the baddies?"[1].

My first job was at a defense contractor, where we manufactured surveillance gear, and sold it to militaries and spy agencies around the world. One of the reasons that I left that job, was because we definitely were the baddies.

[0] https://www.eff.org/pages/leaving-physical-world

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY

Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#13

Post by kaladin-jasnah »

kranke155 wrote: post #6
maxwellito wrote: post #4

I have a genuine question for Meta engineers: what were you hoping to gain by working at this company? What motivated you, and what were your aspirations?

People who work at Meta, the ones I met in London, didn’t seem too far removed from people working in the financial industry. They didn’t seem to look much further than their desk and their bank accounts for what was meaningful to them. That’s ok, I’m sure we need people like that, but a lot of them were just doing the “career” thing and don’t really mind about what happens to the system they’re contributing to after…

> I’m sure we need people like that

Is that because if all people in the software industry cared about the subject and technology more than the money, we would be overworked for low wages? Eg. in the video games industry?

On the flip side, is it good that people are willing to ignore the negative societal consequences of their job?

(I'm not trying to make a point, but rather asking questions since I want to know how people see this.)

Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#14

Post by mrhottakes »

rwak12 wrote: post #7

How will the people here who continuously rationalize AI rationalize this? A substantial number of the cheerleaders are financially invested in AI of course, but there are useful idiots, too. You are destroying a profession that was fun and profitable. Don't come with your Luddite and " a subset of us did it to others as well" talking points. Adding numbers wasn't fun, spreadsheets by hand weren't fun. But you are ac…

They'll use the same tired and morally bankrupt excuse as everyone else that builds horrible things: "If we don't do it, someone else will. (Also we'll make so much money doing it!)"

Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#15

Post by analog8374 »

kranke155 wrote: post #6
maxwellito wrote: post #4

I have a genuine question for Meta engineers: what were you hoping to gain by working at this company? What motivated you, and what were your aspirations?

People who work at Meta, the ones I met in London, didn’t seem too far removed from people working in the financial industry. They didn’t seem to look much further than their desk and their bank accounts for what was meaningful to them. That’s ok, I’m sure we need people like that, but a lot of them were just doing the “career” thing and don’t really mind about what happens to the system they’re contributing to after…

"Desk and bank account" makes for a very small world. Have we shrunk? Are we dwarfs now?

Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#18

Post by afavour »

scottious wrote: post #9
tinfoilhatter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a Meta engineer, but if I had to offer a guess, the answer would be money.

I saw a comment by an anonymous Meta engineer who said that it's difficult to leave when you see $2m worth of unvested stock sitting in your account. How many years would you be miserable for $2m? Many people can be easily seduced by that amount of money

Totally understandable, and probably another reason why morale is so low, as employees watch the stock price and their personal fortunes fall.

Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#19

Post by rsweeney21 »

maxwellito wrote: post #4

I have a genuine question for Meta engineers: what were you hoping to gain by working at this company? What motivated you, and what were your aspirations?

I work at Meta.

1) Work with top minds in ML 2) Money

But I have enough money now and no amount of more money (that Meta could reasonably offer for my role) would make it worth staying. This place sucks now.

Re: Meta's New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

#20

Post by tinfoilhatter »

scottious wrote: post #9
tinfoilhatter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a Meta engineer, but if I had to offer a guess, the answer would be money.

I saw a comment by an anonymous Meta engineer who said that it's difficult to leave when you see $2m worth of unvested stock sitting in your account. How many years would you be miserable for $2m? Many people can be easily seduced by that amount of money

I guess it depends - if the miserable conditions and work I was doing only affected me, maybe a couple of years. The problem here is that Meta is a company that actively does harm to the world. They've contributed to genocide in Myanmar, harmed children, and overall have been a net negative on society. So my answer to your question, if we're strictly talking about Meta, is none. I would never work for a company like Meta because I value other humans more than money.
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