Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth told employees at a July Q&A that AI productivity gains should be channeled into building more products, not taking additional time off, dismissing a question about reviving the company’s discontinued vacation program as “very dumb.”
An employee asked Bosworth whether AI-driven efficiency improvements could restore “Meta Days,” a pandemic-era holiday program that allowed staff extra paid time off before being canceled after 2022. Bosworth responded by emphasizing Meta’s mission and his own commitment to using any extra time productively.
“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,” Bosworth said, according to three people who attended the call. “We got billions of people using our products every day. I get an extra hour. You know what I do with it? I put it into that.”
Bosworth told the employee to abandon the idea entirely. “Stop asking about Meta Days. It’s very dumb,” he said. “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. Ask your parents what they think of that as a career strategy.” He later acknowledged he may have come down too hard on the employee, saying he believed the question was asked tongue-in-cheek.
Meta currently provides four working weeks of paid time off annually, plus public holidays and two “choice days” that employees can use whenever they wish. The company replaced Meta Days with this more flexible structure after discontinuing the extra vacation program.
Bosworth’s comments reflect a broader tension in the tech industry over how companies should deploy AI productivity gains. While some research suggests workers using AI tools save significant time—studies have reported anywhere from 5% to 40% of work hours depending on the role—there is no consensus on whether those efficiencies should translate to shorter workweeks, higher output, or both.
Some tech leaders have embraced the view that AI efficiency should fuel more intense work environments. Amazon, for instance, has promoted a culture where fewer employees accomplish more with AI assistance. Other industry figures, like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have predicted that AI will eventually reduce work pressure and allow households to return to single-earner models. A 2023 Morgan Stanley forecast suggested generative AI could enable workers to take on multiple jobs, though research from Harvard and other institutions has found that AI often intensifies workloads rather than reducing them, as employees take on broader responsibilities and faster-paced tasks.
Meta declined to provide a statement on Bosworth’s remarks. The company has invested heavily in AI infrastructure; Meta’s recent earnings miss reflected the scale of its AI spending, which the company views as essential to competing in the frontier AI race.
Sources
- Business Insider — Bosworth’s direct quotes, the employee question about Meta Days, the current Meta time-off policy, and the context about Meta Days being a pandemic-era program
- The Verge — Meta Days cancellation timeline (ended after 2022)
- Harvard Business Review — Research on AI intensifying workloads rather than reducing them
- Fortune / Boston Consulting Group — Studies on AI productivity gains and their actual use by companies
