An ex-Meta employee said he had so little to do during his first few weeks as a full-time staffer that he went surfing on a work day

• A former Meta worker said he went surfing on a work day because he didn't have any assignments.
• The entry-level staffer said one of his only assignments for weeks at the company was onboarding-related work.
• The worker is one of many in Silicon Valley calling out poor management strategies.

A former Meta worker said he had so much free time when he was hired onto the tech company that he once went surfing on a work day.

The worker is one of many to point to a culture of "fake work" and "lazy management" in Silicon Valley. Earlier this year, a former Meta employee went viral on TikTok after she said she "had to fight to find work" at the company. Her comments followed a rant from PayPal Mafia member Keith Rabois, who said Google and Meta hired thousands of staff who did "fake work" — a view that has gained some traction with some Silicon Valley investors and founders.

"There was just no guidance at all," the ex-Meta worker said of his less than two months at the company, when he was waiting to be placed on a team as an entry-level data scientist. "I remember one day literally having absolutely nothing to do, and I just went surfing instead because I'm remote. I have no one to report to. It seems like no one knows I'm here."

The former worker told Insider that, after he transitioned from an intern to a full time employee at Meta, one of his only points of contact at the company was a data science mentor and the majority of the tasks he was assigned were procedural onboarding tasks, like learning about the company's culture or internal tools. It typically takes companies about three months to fully onboard an employee, according to BambooHR, a human resources software company.

The worker said his thinking at the time was: "The waves are great. I'm going to go take the afternoon off."

Before receiving a full-time offer at Meta, the former employee was an intern at the tech company two summers in a row. He said the nature of the virtual internship made it difficult to grow in his career and he felt at least one of the projects he spent his time on was likely to never see the light of day. Though, unlike the full-time position, the worker said he had a clear role, check-ins with his manager, and received assignments to help fill his time.

"It didn't really feel like a real job, in my opinion," the worker said, attributing the issue to the lack of in-person connection with other interns and staff.

"I didn't think the work we were doing was the most interesting or important," he added. "But I was hopeful when I accepted the full-time offer that I'd be moving to a different area of the company."

The Meta worker said he was eliminated in the company's first round of layoffs. A few weeks prior he had moved across the country to San Francisco to live near Meta's headquarters.

The entry level worker was one of several workers in Silicon Valley, including at Meta, to detail concerns about a lack of work and poor management strategies.

A spokesperson for Meta did not respond to several requests for comment from Insider ahead of publication.

Read the full story that goes inside the system of "lazy management" that's helped create a culture of "fake work."