In 2022, when I reviewed Sheera Frenkel & Cecilia Kang’s alarming Facebook exposé An Ugly Truth, I concluded that Mark Zuckerberg was a power hungry goon and Sheryl Sandberg a coward for not countering his worst instincts. Here we are three years later and we learn from their former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams’ Careless People that the corporate culture there was even more rotten than that. Different formats – the former is a traditional business book, the latter a memoir – but equally unsettling. Sure, Zuck’s a loathsome cyborg yet we’re provided evidence that he lied to Congress about China’s intentions to use his team’s technology and tools designed to censor its own populace. As for the since-departed Sandberg, we learn she sexually harassed the author and other women on her staff over the years, pressuring them to sleep with her on private flights. One of Sandberg’s henchmen hit on his direct report Wynn-Williams repeatedly and saw to her firing for having reported it. Shocking if not surprising. As we’re told in the conclusion, “The more they see of the consequences of their actions, the less of a fuck Mark and Facebook’s leadership give.”
The story begins in a sunnier place, on a New Zealand beach. A teenaged Wynn-Williams survived a gruesome shark attack, thanks to her fighting spirit, less so her dad casually driving her to the hospital. Daring in nature, years later she pursues Facebook on a change-the-world mission seeking to leverage her work in diplomacy and the law, believing the rapidly growing tech company would require her skill set in shaping public policy. She pitched a job, persisted, and created a crucial department. So far, so good. Enter darkness. Zuckerberg can blather all he likes about connecting people around the globe and promoting free speech. Nonsense. What did he & his sycophantic minions believe in? Getting through their inboxes, seeing themselves as “managers, not world builders,” which is fine until it’s purely reckless. There is no moral core to be found when all decisions are made in the service of growth. Wynn-Williams does manage to work in some welcome humor, noting that when you have to explain Nuremberg to the team lead on entering China, you’ve got yourself a red flag.
What’s most galling is Sandberg. At least with Zuckerberg – his Caesar haircut, the flop sweats, that lifeless, blank stare – we can apply WYSIWYG judgment. His former COO, however, is beyond fake. Through her invented image, we’re supposed to buy that she’s at the forefront of breaking glass ceilings. Please. For all the ungodly executive behavior we read in these sorts of whistleblower accounts, Sandberg needling underlings to put their heads in her lap, to stroke their hair, to have sleepovers has to take the prize for outrageousness. She managed to pull off the horrible boss trifecta with weird, dangerous, and illegal behavior and for what? That I’ve yet to mention Sandberg has emailed her leadership team “breathlessly highlighting how terrorism is working to Facebook’s advantage” – the more mass casualties, the less concern over privacy, duh – or that she oversaw ad targeting that capitalized on teenage girls feeling “worthless” should say a lot. The fish rots from the head. Rather than consider human decency, they “focused on commencement speeches, vanity political campaigns, vacation properties, raising artisanal Wagyu beef from macadamia-eating cows, whatever their latest plaything was.” Careless people? Sounds more like soulless. You can criticize Wynn-Williams for not affecting more change while employed there, but with this book’s recent publication it’s not too late.
If you have anything to say about this – or book recommendations – kindly post below (rather than emailing me) to spark conversation. Thank you!