Ahoy there, Metamates! Mark Zuckerberg announced a bunch of changes this week aimed at transforming Meta’s internal culture as it prepares for a future packed with more regulation, antitrust investigations, and that big shift to metaverse.
As Insider reported:
[Zuckerberg] said
in a post on his Facebook page that he had told employees in a virtual all-hands meeting that he wanted the workforce to adopt a new motto: “Meta, Metamates, Me.”…
Zuckerberg made some other announcements during the meeting, like the company’s move away from the value of “move fast,” which he said would be tweaked to “move fast together.” Facebook is known for its early-days anthem of “move fast and break things.”
It’s all a bit… cringe, isn’t it? Like when your bosses decide that rather than make deep, difficult, but necessary cultural changes, they think a few new slogans will do the job. In fact, it’s exactly like that.
To be fair, Google employees are called Googlers, which is pretty silly in its own way. But ‘Metamates’ is several leagues sillier. Even the man who came up with the name later admitted
it wasn’t even his first choice.
The announcement came alongside other changes, like the Facebook News Feed being
renamed the Feed (well, it doesn’t have much news in it these days, does it?), a move that spurred a bunch of
memes.
But perhaps the most significant change was the
promotion of Nick Clegg to sit right at the top table of the company alongside Zuck and Sheryl Sandberg. With Clegg now president for global affairs, it’s a sign how important making the right impression with politicians and regulators will be to Meta’s future.
But even now, with three captains ruling over a global team of Metamates, there’s still no doubt that Zuck’s
iron grip on the company remains. Whatever Meta’s future holds, it’s still firmly his responsibility for better or worse.
