Big Tech Upgrades To AI-Powered Micromanagement, Now Watching Your Bathroom Breaks

KEY POINTS

•In early 2026, Amazon started monitoring employee badge swipes and requiring 3-5 key accomplishments for performance reviews.
•Meta has introduced AI usage dashboards, tightened performance rewards, and cut about 10% of its metaverse team.
•Executives like Citi CEO Jane Fraser have publicly urged employees to focus on measurable results, not just effort.

As Silicon Valley’s 2026 agenda reads like '1984: The AI Edition,' Big Tech giants Amazon and Meta have unleashed ultra-creepy performance dashboards that track everything from your swipe badge to your AI usage habits. Amazon demands 3-5 accomplishments or it’s mandatory existential dread. Meta’s metaverse is cutting 10% of its team mid-simulation apocalypse, rewarding only top cyborgs with a camping spot in the winners' circle. Meanwhile, over at Incedo, CEO Nitin Seth brags coding productivity is up 40%, so naturally some humans got digitally downsized. Wharton’s Matthew Bidwell confesses executives are panicking to avoid Elon Musk's 'fire everything and flex' method, turning work into a frantic game of “prove you’re not a Zoom ghost.” Meanwhile, Citi’s CEO Rachel raising bars like a boot camp sergeant reminds 200,000 workers that effort means nada; only results (preferably quantifiable by AI) count. 'Squeezing the most out of people' has officially replaced 'create meaningful work' as Silicon Valley’s battle cry.