From Worker to Wizard: Facebook’s Metamate Saga

In its latest rebranding move, Meta, formerly Facebook, is changing the way it refers to its employees. On February 15, 2022, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the employees will now be called “Metamates.”At a virtual all-hands meeting, he unveiled new company values, including one that was a nod to an old maritime saying.

Zuckerberg Wants Employees to Put Ship and Crew First

The CEO of Meta said in a Facebook post that he wanted the workforce to adopt a new meta: “Meta, Metamates, Me.” It refers to the naval phrase “ship, shipmates, self,” which Instagram had been using internally for some time.

The concept has long been discussed in business organizational circles as a way to increase efficiency.

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Meta’s future CTO Andrew Bosworth said the term “Metamates” was coined by none other than Douglas Hofstadter, the Pulitzer-prize winning cognitive scientist who taught machines to think. It happened after an employee had cold emailed him for rebranding ideas after Facebook became Meta . Hofstadter had initially suggested the simpler name “teammates” and added Metamates as another possibility in a footnote.

Meta’s workers are not the first members of a workforce to be given a special title: Zappos calls its workers Zaponians, Accenture has Accenturions, and Pinterest has Pinployees. Employees are given nicknames to make them feel like an integral part of the organization. These names convey a sense of teamwork and group identity and create a warmer atmosphere at work.

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In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg notes, “Meta, Metamates, Me is about being good stewards of our company and mission. It’s about the sense of responsibility we have for our collective success and to each other as teammates. It’s about taking care of our company and each other.”

Building the Next Chapter of Meta

Mark Zuckerberg announced several other changes during the meeting, including a move away from its previous emphasis on “move fast” and toward the concept of “move fast together.” He also emphasized Facebook’s focus on long-term growth and shared other guiding principles that would shape Meta’s work in the coming years in a Facebook post.