Workplace Disruption Reported at Meta Amid AR and VR Push, Some Staff Defecting to Competitors Like Apple

Some Meta employees are being aggressively pushed to apply for other jobs at the company and embrace the recent drive toward augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), while others are choosing to defect to competitors such as Apple, The New York Times reports.

facebook meta
Since Facebook rebranded as Meta and lauded the future of the "metaverse," the company is said to have undergone a sweeping transformation, creating thousands of new jobs to develop hardware and software for AR and VR. More than 24 percent of Meta's open job listings are for roles in AR or VR, but the company has ramped up its internal recruitment in recent months.

Meta is reportedly pushing its employees in products, engineering, and research to apply for new positions in the company's expanding AR and VR teams, suggesting that employees should move in order to succeed. Other workers have been elevated from their jobs in the company's social networking divisions to lead the same functions with an emphasis on AR and VR. Moreover, employees have purportedly been expected to adopt a positive attitude toward the metaverse and innovation in the AR and VR space, or leave the company.

Meta has also sought to poach talent from Apple and Microsoft amid the rush to bring a compelling, mainstream AR and VR experience to market. In an effort to dissuade staff from leaving, Apple has offered some of its engineers up to $180K in stock bonuses.

The result of this transformation has been severe internal disruption at Meta, according to current and former employees speaking to The New York Times. While some workers were excited about Meta's new direction, others have taken issue with the company's approach toward employees and questioned whether the company was sidelining existing problems.

One former Instagram employee resigned from his role after feeling that his work would no longer be of value to the company, while another said that they thought Meta was not best placed to create the metaverse and was looking for a job at a competitor as a result.

What Meta's pivot toward AR and VR means for Facebook and Instagram seemingly remains in flux, but the teams working on these two social media platforms are said to have shrunk over the past four months and are facing budget cuts. A spokesperson for Meta said that there have been no "significant" job cuts to existing teams because of the company's new direction.

Meta's vision for AR and VR is set to face fierce competition. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all looking to launch mainstream AR and VR devices in the near future, while Samsung is said to have neglected the space due to an "obsession" with foldable smartphones. Apple's first mixed-reality headset is rumored to be facing development problems, which could postpone the device's launch until next year.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Tag: Meta
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

Popular Stories

Mayday Calendar

Apple Acquisition Hints at Upgraded Calendar App on iOS 19 or Beyond

Friday May 9, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple acquired Canadian startup Mayday Labs in April 2024, according to a European Commission listing, spotted by French blog MacGeneration. The acquisition had not received widespread attention from tech publications until now. Apple is legally required to report certain acquisitions to the European Commission, under the terms of the EU's Digital Markets Act. Mayday Labs founder Jeremy...
Nineth iOS 19 Feature

iOS 19 Beta is a Month Away With These New Features for Your iPhone

Thursday May 8, 2025 7:37 am PDT by
The first iOS 19 beta is just one month away, and there are already many new features and changes that are expected with it. Apple should seed the first iOS 19 beta to developers immediately following the WWDC 2025 keynote, which is scheduled for Monday, June 9. Following beta testing, the update should be released to the general public in September. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors...
fortnite apple featured

Epic Games Submits Fortnite to U.S. App Store

Friday May 9, 2025 9:57 am PDT by
As promised, Epic Games today submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store, and if approved by Apple, it will mark the first time that the Fortnite app has been available in the United States since 2020. Fortnite will include options to purchase in-app currency from the web rather than through in-app purchase, which is what got the game banned to begin with. This time, though, Apple has been...
iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full iOS 18.5 Release Notes

Tuesday May 6, 2025 2:17 pm PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate version of iOS 18.5 to developers and public beta testers, giving us a look at the final version of the update that will be provided to the public next week. With the release candidate, Apple provided release notes, so we have a more complete look at the new features that are included in the update, including those that weren't found during the beta...
top stories 2025 05 10

Top Stories: iOS 18.5 Release Imminent, iPhone Rumors for 2025 and Beyond, and More

Saturday May 10, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
With Apple's developer conference where it will show off iOS 19 just a month away, the company is wrapping up work on iOS 18.5 ahead of an imminent release to deliver a few new features and updates. This week also saw a number of iPhone-related rumors, encompassing not only this year's iPhone 17 lineup but also Apple's plans for 2026 and 2027, even as Apple's Eddy Cue suggested AI could make ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Apple's Foldable iPhone Display Tech May Set New Industry Standard

Thursday May 8, 2025 3:29 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone will feature a new type of display panel developed by Samsung that has never been used in a foldable product, claims a source with links to Apple's supply chain. According to the account yeux1122 on the Korean Naver blog, the foldable iPhone will use a custom display process for which Apple will hold branding trademark rights, and that meets Apple's stringent ...

Top Rated Comments

Reason077 Avatar
43 months ago
Good for them. Facebook (errr... Meta) is an awful and unethical company. Go work somewhere better, do something positive for the world, and perhaps sleep a little better at night.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nikaru Avatar
43 months ago
The VR is for porn!
The VR is for porn!
Why do you think the VR was born?!
For porn, porn, porn!
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
till Avatar
43 months ago
I'm still not clear on what amazing, useful (profitable) thing Facebook expects to do with "the metaverse". There's incredible potential for games, a vast multiverse of connected worlds with a common architecture. That's a cool idea.

But that doesn't seem to be the focus here, and I'm extremely skeptical that this will end up anywhere interesting. A metaverse concept is more or less completely orthogonal to other useful things you might do with AR or VR.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ersan191 Avatar
43 months ago

At this point, Meta is just waiting for Apple to release the AR/VR headset. No matter what type of staff adjustments they’re going to through. They won’t release a product before Apple does.
Facebook (Oculus) has already released several VR headsets?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
43 months ago
At this point, Meta is just waiting for Apple to release the AR/VR headset. No matter what type of staff adjustments they’re going to through. They won’t release a product before Apple does.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
_Spinn_ Avatar
43 months ago
I hope this is the beginning of the end of this terrible company. ?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)