{"slug": "meta-exec-rages-against-employees-asking-for-more-time-off-because-ai-made-them", "title": "Meta Exec Rages Against Employees Asking for More Time Off Because AI Made Them More Efficient", "summary": "Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth berated an employee during a July Q&A for asking whether AI productivity gains could revive the company's cancelled 'Meta Days' holiday program, saying he hopes extra time is used to 'do even more and cooler stuff' for users. The exchange comes as Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, has cut about 8,000 jobs this year amid AI competition struggles, and a lawsuit accuses the company of using AI to target workers on leave for layoffs.", "body_md": "Even as they promise AI will supercharge productivity, tech leaders are sending a clear message: any efficiency gains won’t help individual workers.\n\nDuring a podcast appearance last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman [said that he doesn’t “expect AI” to lead to a shorter four-hour work week](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-power-ai-shorter-work-week). He argued that workers are “secretly” going to be “happy” about being “much busier” and working even harder thanks to AI — a bizarre and out-of-touch comment from a billionaire with extraordinary power over the lives of working people.\n\nNow, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has similarly cracked the whip, as [ Business Insider reports](https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-cto-andrew-bosworth-ai-gains-work-2026-8) — and he’s even willing to berate the company’s workers for asking for more time off.\n\nDuring a July Q&A with staff, Bosworth shut down an employee who asked if AI productivity gains could be used to revive “Meta Days,” a cancelled holiday program that once allowed staff to take more days off a year.\n\nBosworth was apparently appalled at the idea, saying that “I hope that what we do with our extra time is do even more and cooler stuff for the users who use our products every day.”\n\nThe thinly-veiled implication at a tech giant that’s been rocked by [repeated rounds of brutal layoffs](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/technology/meta-layoffs-ai.html): [you should be so happy](https://gizmodo.com/jeff-bezos-tells-workers-to-be-so-happy-theyre-being-given-the-gift-of-ai-2000761413) to [still be employed](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/meta-layoffs-lawsuit-9.7271307)!\n\n“We got billions of people using our products every day,” he added. “I get an extra hour. You know what I do with it? I put it into that.”\n\nThe executive then dug his heels even further, personally insulting the staffer for asking about work-life balance.\n\n“Go to your parents and ask them: hey, like every time I get a chance to talk to my boss, ask me if I can have more days off,” he said, per *BI*. “Ask your parents what they think of that as a career strategy.”\n\nIt’s a harrowing reaction, highlighting not just how AI is leading to [widespread burnout](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-burnout-machine), but just how grim the working environment at Meta has become as of late. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company fired around [8,000 employees](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/23/meta-microsoft-tech-ai-layoffs) earlier this year as its attempts to catch up to the competition in the AI space [continue to sputter](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mark-zuckerberg-pivot-ai-blowing-up-face).\n\nIn June, Zuckerberg [acknowledged plummeting morale](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-zuckerberg-workers-morale-layoffs) among workers, while [offering underwhelming ideas](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mark-zuckerberg-employees-fun-hackathon-layoffs) to lift their spirits.\n\nTaking time off has become a massive point of contention, with a [lawsuit filed last month](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/14/meta-ai-mass-layoffs-lawsuit) accusing Meta of [using AI tools to tag workers](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-biased-ai-layoffs-workers-labor-lawsuit) who had taken time off for maternity leave or disability accommodation, in order to lay them off later.\n\nAfter his tirade, Bosworth appeared to have had a moment of clarity. He apologized for coming down “too hard” on the employee, per *BI*, while trying to brush off his abrasive commentary as “tongue-in-cheek.”\n\nBut the damage was already done. Bosworth’s crashout once again highlights how precarious the situation for knowledge workers has become. Any productivity gains from AI are unlikely to lead to any meaningful improvements in the quality of life for them, even as they’re already struggling to stay employed.\n\nBesides, as managers are [finding out the hard way](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/survey-ceos-ai-workplace), those productivity gains appear to be far more elusive than company leaders led us to believe.\n\n**More on Meta:** *Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-exec-rages-against-employees-asking-for-more-time-off-because-ai-made-them", "canonical_source": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-exec-rages-against-employees-more-time-off-ai", "published_at": "2026-08-10 14:17:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-10 14:20:18.795747+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Meta", "Andrew Bosworth", "Sam Altman", "OpenAI", "Mark Zuckerberg", "Business Insider"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-exec-rages-against-employees-asking-for-more-time-off-because-ai-made-them", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-exec-rages-against-employees-asking-for-more-time-off-because-ai-made-them.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-exec-rages-against-employees-asking-for-more-time-off-because-ai-made-them.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-exec-rages-against-employees-asking-for-more-time-off-because-ai-made-them.jsonld"}}