Year of the Meta yes far away wasn’t exactly a picnic. But that didn’t stop one nut lover from looking for a little joy at one of the company’s offices this week.
A squirrel apparently broke free from a building in Bangkok, Thailand, that houses some of the tech giant’s regional teams. According to an internal memo seen by WIRED, the creature spent at least 20 minutes sneaking past staff. The squirrel was reported to have slightly injured the janitor before it was finally caught.
The rodent’s adventure in the office – while potentially terrifying for some – brought a moment of levity to Meta employees around the world, dejected by recent restructurings, mass layoffs and the launch of an initiative to train artificial intelligence using employee data without their prior consent. According to current employees and an internal memo, Meta executives acknowledged the current morale crisis and began trying to improve the mood at the company by funding drunken social outings and promising to improve the quality of office food.
In recent years, some Meta employees have complained that they have lost access to fit office snacks such as nuts, which they believe have been replaced by less nutritious products such as chips. There was no way to find out if there was anything the Bangkok animal robber liked.
An internal memo shows that the squirrel was delivered to the office in a package, but eventually escaped. The janitor from the cleaning company took the delivery. The note did not mention why the squirrel was delivered or where it currently resides, but some people keep the animals as pets or eat their meat.
Meta declined to comment on the incident.
The note shows that the injured employee, who suffered a scratch on his finger, was given first aid and then taken to hospital for medical examination. The janitor “responsible for bringing the animal onto the premises” formally admitted his misconduct and pledged to follow office regulations to ensure “such an incident does not occur again,” the memo added.
The incident was first reported by Up-to-date York Times journalist Mike Isaac social media post on Tuesday, without specifying the place and role of the janitor. “As you might expect, people internally have a lot of work to do with this,” he wrote. “One person created an AI-generated video mimicking an HR training course on squirrel-related office best practices.”
Squirrels looking for a suitable home in the Meta empire may have better luck invading Hawaii, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal cattle eat dinner homemade beer and macadamia nuts.
Additional reporting by Lauren Goode.