Meta's CTO advised employees to refrain from requesting additional time off and to utilize the benefits of AI to create "cooler stuff" instead.

      Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth informed employees during a July Q&A that any productivity improvements from AI should be directed towards creating more products rather than increasing time off. When asked if these gains could be used to bring back the "Meta Days" vacation program, which had been canceled, Bosworth responded directly, labeling the question as "very dumb." He emphasized that the goal should be to utilize any additional time for enhancing user experiences with their products.

      Bosworth also advised the employee to consider how their parents would perceive them using opportunities to request time off from their boss. Although he later apologized for his bluntness and recognized that the question might have been made in a light-hearted manner, his comments still reflect the current situation. Earlier this year, Meta laid off 8,000 employees while investing up to $135 billion in AI infrastructure. Instead of reinstating Meta Days, the company introduced two "choice days" and offers four weeks of vacation in addition to public holidays. Bosworth has the potential to earn up to $921 million from a stock option plan linked to Meta achieving a $9 trillion valuation by 2031. Essentially, the message to employees is that increased productivity from AI is retained by the company, and the payoff for employees is the opportunity to produce more.

      The overarching discussion revolves around whether the productivity gains from AI should benefit workers or employers. Jeff Bezos has suggested that AI could allow households to support themselves with a single income. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley anticipates that AI will enable millions to take on additional jobs. Bosworth's stance mirrors that of employers: achieve greater output within the same work hours without extra days off. In a company that has already reduced its workforce by 10% this year, instructed remaining employees to train their AI successors, and implemented keystroke monitoring on laptops, the response to the question of time off was predictably unfavorable. Bosworth simply voiced what many were aware of.