Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work, Sarah Wynn-Williams’ account of the years she spent working for Facebook (now Meta) has caused something of a stir, topping the New York Times bestseller lists for several weeks and stimulating a good deal of debate.
Wynn-Williams was an idealistic New Zealand
diplomat who worked at the United Nations in New York but when she realised
that the film Finding Nemo was having
a bigger effect on people’s attitudes to conservation than the UN could, she
decided it was time to move on.
And so she did. Back in 2009, she came to the conclusion that Facebook could change the world for the better, connecting people on a new level and being a force for good. She eventually managed to land a job there, running the company’s international policy. Early on in Careless People she describes her seven years at Facebook as starting as a hopeful comedy and ending in darkness and regret, because, as her book makes very clear as it progresses, Facebook may be many things, but a force for good in the world, it is not – at least, not always.
In her early days with the company, a major focus was trying to persuade governments that regulating Facebook was not the way to go – allowing free speech was paramount, and governments should embrace it and work with it. But she began to realise that Mark Zuckerberg and the other top executives were much more interested in their bottom line than in improving people’s lives – their activities, particularly in China and Myanmar, simply could not stand up to scrutiny. But who was going to scrutinise, anyway? If Zuckerberg started as an idealist himself, that is no longer the case – and he comes across as a very peculiar individual.
Inevitably, Wynn-Williams is out to present a rosy picture of herself, but the reader can’t help feeling that her level of naivety was pretty staggering. And if things were as terrible as she makes out, despite the personal difficulties that she explains would have been the consequence, she could have simply walked away. In the end, although she contemplated doing just that, she was unceremoniously fired.
As well as the political activities of the Meta universe, the book details the incredibly toxic working environment that existed – and probably still exists – within the company. The culture of entitlement, sexism and general boorish behaviour is staggering and any attempt to report it and have it dealt with was stonewalled.
Of course, this is all Wynn-Williams’ viewpoint. And she belabours her point to an extreme degree, particularly towards the climax of the book. Meta has shot back, describing her complaints and the book as the sour revenge of a dismissed employee. Who knows exactly where the truth lies? But one thing Wynn-Williams makes abundantly clear, even if it was suspected already: Facebook/Meta is certainly not a benign and idealistic organization, whether or not it once was. - Margaret von Klemperer
Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work is published by Macmillan: ISBN 978-1035065936
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