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A review by liesthemoontells
Careless People: A story of where I used to work by Sarah Wynn-Williams
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
The known corruption at Facebook, with its mantra of "Move Fast, Break Things", has led to a worse-off world for all of us. While many of the revelations in this book have already been made public, there is something raw and squishy about hearing the personal experience of someone who had a front row seat to them.
This is a brilliant memoir. The pacing is gripping, and Wynn-Williams' own narration means that the most explosive passages crackle with her own frustration and anger. Hearing that these careless people are just as dangerous and harmful in the way they conduct their interpersonal relationships with colleagues is as thrilling and validating as it is repulsive.
The major absence in this account is Wynn-Williams' reckoning with her own complicity in the actions of Facebook. By her telling, she was a naive paragon of idealistic virtue, utterly dismayed at each horrific development, her pleas against every escalation into amorality falling on deaf ears. In reality, there is no way she could have lasted at the company for seven years without having condoned and perpetuated some of this harm herself. It is noteworthy that her time at Facebook came to an end, not because of a principled stand against the company's actions, but because she was fired after speaking out about sexual harassment by her manager. Of course sexual harassment in the workplace is abhorrent and undeserved, but so is the genocide in Myanmar sparked by Facebook, which Wynn-Williams chronicles in painstaking detail - detail that could only be known by someone who was directly involved in it, and who notably continued to work for the company for several more years.
The one excuse I can make for Wynn-Williams' lack of true accountability is that, in many parts, her story reads like that of a cult survivor who was cast from the flock before she was ready to leave. Many of the anecdotes of her experiences at Facebook recount classic cult tactics for breaking down and reshaping their employees, and as anyone with an understanding of cult dynamics knows, many members become both victims and perpetrators of the group's abuses. I hope that further reflection brings Wynn-Williams to a place where she can fully come to terms with the harms of her own actions and take ownership of her complicity, rather than transplanting all responsibility to her former employer.
That being said, I have already recommended this audiobook to about ten different people and will continue to stress that anyone with even a passing interest in corruption in Big Tech, great memoir writing, or a sense of tech skepticism should read it.
This is a brilliant memoir. The pacing is gripping, and Wynn-Williams' own narration means that the most explosive passages crackle with her own frustration and anger. Hearing that these careless people are just as dangerous and harmful in the way they conduct their interpersonal relationships with colleagues is as thrilling and validating as it is repulsive.
The major absence in this account is Wynn-Williams' reckoning with her own complicity in the actions of Facebook. By her telling, she was a naive paragon of idealistic virtue, utterly dismayed at each horrific development, her pleas against every escalation into amorality falling on deaf ears. In reality, there is no way she could have lasted at the company for seven years without having condoned and perpetuated some of this harm herself. It is noteworthy that her time at Facebook came to an end, not because of a principled stand against the company's actions, but because she was fired after speaking out about sexual harassment by her manager. Of course sexual harassment in the workplace is abhorrent and undeserved, but so is the genocide in Myanmar sparked by Facebook, which Wynn-Williams chronicles in painstaking detail - detail that could only be known by someone who was directly involved in it, and who notably continued to work for the company for several more years.
The one excuse I can make for Wynn-Williams' lack of true accountability is that, in many parts, her story reads like that of a cult survivor who was cast from the flock before she was ready to leave. Many of the anecdotes of her experiences at Facebook recount classic cult tactics for breaking down and reshaping their employees, and as anyone with an understanding of cult dynamics knows, many members become both victims and perpetrators of the group's abuses. I hope that further reflection brings Wynn-Williams to a place where she can fully come to terms with the harms of her own actions and take ownership of her complicity, rather than transplanting all responsibility to her former employer.
That being said, I have already recommended this audiobook to about ten different people and will continue to stress that anyone with even a passing interest in corruption in Big Tech, great memoir writing, or a sense of tech skepticism should read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism