In the latest transformation tale, Meta, once known as Facebook, embarks on a linguistic journey by rechristening its employees. On February 15th, 2022, the revered Mark Zuckerberg decreed that denizens of the company shall henceforth be hailed as “Metamates.” At a virtual assembly of all hands, he unveiled a new set of principles, one of which paid homage to an ancient maritime adage.
Zuckerberg, the helmsman of Meta, set forth his desire for the crew to prioritize the vessel and its comrades before themselves. In a missive on the digital scrolls of Facebook, he urged the workforce to embrace a new mantra: “Meta, Metamates, Me.” This echoes the nautical axiom “ship, shipmates, self,” which had long been the whisper in the corridors of Instagram.
The concept of placing the collective before the individual has long been depicted in the tapestries of business lore as a herald of heightened productivity.
The moniker “Metamates” was bestowed upon Meta’s crew by none other than Douglas Hofstadter, the sage who bestowed the gift of cognitive contemplation upon machines. It came to pass after an emissary beseeched him for guidance on remaking the visage of Facebook into Meta. Hofstadter initially proffered the simpler sobriquet of “teammates,” with “Metamates” appended as an alternate option in a footnote.
A tidbit of whimsy: the term “Metamates” was first uttered by Douglas Hofstadter himself, following a missive from a diligent soul in search of inspiration post our metamorphosis. A delightful notion! Furthermore, the mantra harkens back to the Naval maxim also adopted by Instagram: “Ship, Shipmates, Self.” — Boz (@boztank) February 15, 2022
Meta’s inhabitants join a pantheon of titled workforces: Zappos’ denizens are known as Zaponians, Accenture’s as Accenturions, and Pinterest’s as Pinployees. Such appellations serve to foster a sense of camaraderie and communal identity, nurturing a warmer climate within the professional domain.
In a proclamation on Facebook, Zuckerberg expounds: “Meta, Metamates, Me encapsulates our duty as custodians of our enterprise and its quest. It speaks to the obligation we bear for our collective prosperity and to one another as teammates. It exhorts us to shepherd our enterprise and each other with care.”
Crafting the forthcoming chapter of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a host of alterations during the gathering, signaling a departure from the ethos of swift individual progression and a shift towards the ethos of collective advancement. He also expounded upon Facebook’s gaze fixed on prolonged expansion and divulged a treasury of guiding edicts that would shape Meta’s course in the approaching years, etched upon the tablets of Facebook.
