OpenAI employees can apparently complain directly to Sam Altman

OpenAI employees can report company problems directly to CEO Sam Altman via a dedicated email address, friction@openai.com, according to Fortune. The process was formalized by Fidji Simo, who joined as CEO of Applications in fall 2025, and is monitored by Irina Kofman, VP of strategic initiatives and operations. While some employees praise the system for enabling direct feedback, others say issues are only resolved if Altman and President Greg Brockman deem them worthy, creating inefficiencies for overburdened teams.

OpenAI employees can apparently complain directly to Sam Altman Anna Iovine /author/anna-iovine Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/annaroseiovine.bsky.social . Read Full Bio /author/anna-iovine OpenAI https://mashable.com/category/openai employees apparently have a quick way to reach founder and CEO Sam Altman https://mashable.com/tech/sam-altman-suggests-parents-generate-ai-podcasts-about-kids , Fortune reported. It's an e https://mashable.com/tech/sam-altman-suggests-parents-generate-ai-podcasts-about-kids mail address, email protected https://fortune.com/2026/08/11/openai-employees-email-friction-address-to-eliminate-bureaucratic-bottlenecks-sam-altman/ , and its purpose is to give employees a place to report company problems that OpenAI's leadership team can triage and handle. What is OpenAI Astra? Everything we know about the new — and possibly dangerous — new model /tech/openai-astra-model-details-release-date The friction@ inbox has existed for a while, according to Fortune , but its use widened when Fidji Simo joined OpenAI as CEO of Applications in the fall of 2025. Simo went on a "listening tour" to better understand problems across the company, and formalized the friction@ process. She assigned Irina Kofman, VP of strategic initiatives and operations, to monitor the inbox and ensure that issues were resolved. Simo also established a monthly, company-wide Slack update to track progress, Fortune reported. You May Also Like Simo has since left OpenAI, but these processes remain. One former OpenAI employee told Fortune that the system gives leadership an effective way to hear employee feedback. "It's a good thing — literally anybody can complain about big company bullsh t directly to Sam, and they can act on it," the former employee told Fortune . Terms of Use https://www.ziffdavis.com/terms-of-use and Privacy Policy https://www.ziffdavis.com/ztg-privacy-policy . Examples Fortune reported include a pilot program to prioritize parking spots for workers with longer commutes to combat full lots, and a more reliable process for granting API credits. However, a problem brought to friction@ only gets resolved if Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman consider it "worthy," another former employee, who led a team at the company, told Fortune . Unlike the other former OpenAI employee, this person said the process created inefficiency. "The individual who reports the issue probably thinks it's the single most important thing, but to teams like mine that are constantly underwater, under-resourced, and over-leveraged, it’s the single most disruptive thing you could do," they told Fortune. It's certainly a way for Sam Altman to get internal real-time critique. For external critique, he can go to X, like when he suggested parents make AI podcasts about their children https://mashable.com/tech/sam-altman-suggests-parents-generate-ai-podcasts-about-kids . Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems. Topics OpenAI https://mashable.com/category/openai Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/annaroseiovine.bsky.social .