"Across Big Tech, companies are tightening worker oversight amid layoffs, AI-driven job anxiety, and cuts to entry-level roles. If 2025 was about bosses calling on workers to be hardcore, 2026 is about making sure they actually do it. A look inside two of the biggest players reveals what heightened accountability can look like: Business Insider exclusively reported this month that Amazon stepped up efforts to let managers track employee badge swipes and revised performance reviews to focus more on individual accomplishments."
"Meanwhile, Business Insider also learned that Meta is using dashboards to track workers' AI usage and simplifying its review structure with a winner-take-more approach that better rewards the highest performers. It is also cutting about 10% of workers at its metaverse division. Taken together, the moves signal that Big Tech is ratcheting up the stakes for workers who find themselves in a market that's sluggish for seemingly all but AI's shiniest superstars."
""I suspect in a lot of tech firms, there is kind of a mood of panic," Matthew Bidwell, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, told Business Insider, referring to executives' fear of falling behind in the AI race. Bidwell added that the sense of urgency coming from the top around AI then leads to the question, "How do we make sure we're squeezing the most out of people?""
In 2026, Silicon Valley companies are tightening worker oversight through increased metrics and monitoring. Amazon expanded manager access to badge-swipe data and retooled performance reviews to emphasize individual accomplishments. Meta implemented dashboards to monitor employees' AI usage, simplified review structures toward a winner-take-more model, and trimmed about 10% of its metaverse division. Firms are investing heavily in AI while awaiting returns, driving executives to demand quantifiable productivity gains. Management anxiety about falling behind in the AI race is prompting intensified measurement of employee output. The trend raises stakes for workers outside top AI-performing roles amid layoffs and reduced entry-level hiring.
Read at Business Insider
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