Careless People Book Cover

Careless People is a new memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former New Zealand diplomat who joined the company in 2011 and rose to become its global public policy director. She pitched herself to the still nacent Washington D.C. office for over a year before finally securing a job. As she says in the book:

“I know what I want this job to be. It’s clear that in these next few years, Facebook and governments all over the world are going to be figuring out the rules of the road for these giant, globe-spanning internet companies. What they set in place will determine how social media is used for decades to come. It will affect elections, privacy, free speech, taxes, and so much else. I want to be part of that.”

As she quickly learns, Facebook–meaning Mark Zuckerberg–has no interest in policy or politics. In fact, it’s a source of pride for him to focus only on engineering. Facebook’s COO on the other hand, Sheryl Sandberg, handles these things along with running the business and everything else. It feels odd to read these passages now, in 2025, where Facebook routinely influences elections and politics, to see that for quite a long time Facebook was aggressively indifferent to being involved in anything beyond tech.

Sarah notes that at one point someone on Facebook’s small policy team asks how the company is meant to change the world.

“They’re shocked when the answer is…nothing really. For Mark and Sheryl it’s obvious. We run a website that connects people. That’s what we believe in. We want more. We want it to be profitable and to grow. What else is there to say?

There is no grand ideology here. No theory about what Facebook should be in the world. The company is just responding to stuff as it happens. We’re managers, not world-builders.”

This indifference and narrow focus on growth at all costs more or less defines the company. And for Sarah, coming from the world of the U.N. and global law, it is quite shocking.

Nonetheless, Sarah finds her niche, introducing global leaders to the Facebook team. Initially they have no interest in meeting Mark Zuckerberg, but in only a few short years most of them are currying his favor, looking for local investment and help being reelected. Unsurprisingly, Sarah relates that Facebook can and routinely does weight its algorithm to benefit certain people, most noteably any posts by Mark or Sheryl, but also world leaders as needed.

For her part, Sarah is often flying around the world in the early days trying to open up countries to Facebook. This includes often dangerous situations, especially for a young woman. Trips to Mynamar to try to get the junta to allow Facebook. To central America. And so on. There is even a chapter titled “The Body” around efforts to visit South Korea, which had open arrest warrants for Facebook officials. Leadership wants to send a body in before the leadership team, to see how serious the country is about this. Sarah is told to go but finds a way out. Ulimately, it is one of the few other women on her team who goes. Not any of the men.

And so on. Sarah acts generally as a consigliere to Mark or Sheryl at global gatherings. Arranging meetings with world leaders. Finding ways for informal one-on-ones. As such, she spends a lot of close time with both of them. Suffice it to say, neither comes across well.

At one point, returning from a global trip, Sheryl invites Sarah, who is several months pregnant, to get some sleep and share the only bed on the plane with her. Sarah awkwardly declines and is seemingly frozen out thereafter.

There is also the cruel irony that the company aggressively promoting Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In, is, wait for it, not that kind to its female employees. This isn’t unique to Facebook, though the company seems particularly cruel in how it treats people. During the birth of her second child, Sarah loses an enormous amount of blood and even goes into a comma for a period time.

“I return to work in August 2016. My first day back, Joel decides to do a performance reviews, as he says “it’s performance review season.” A quick Google search confirms my suspicions that you are not supposed to be given a performance review of your maternity leave. In fact, I understand that pushing someone to work during their maternity leave is against the law. Nevertheless.

“You weren’t responsive enough,” he says.

“In my defense, I was in a coma for some of it.”

“It’s not just me, Sarah. Some of your other colleauges found it challenging to engage with you.”

And so on.

What are the takeaways from this book? It is a memoir so it’s important to consider this is a first-person account, but it’s a useful book for anyone new in their career to read as it provides insight into how leadership often thinks about things. Not all companies operate this way, but many do. Especially towards women.

What resonates for me is the author’s feeling of being trapped, aware that unethical things were being asked of her, done around her, but feeling like she couldn’t stop them. Part of this was financial, as she was the chief breadwinner in her household and had children. Part of it was legal since her immigration status and that of her husband depended upon being employed. But one way or another, she felt like a frog in boiling water at the company, her idealism slowly but surely chipped away.

In the end, after six years, Sarah is fired. As she notes, “It’s less of a savage attack on my career and more of a quick euthanasia…My laptop is confiscated. I’m not allowed back to my desk to retrieve the personal items that had built up over the years at the company…I ask to say goodbye to my team and beloved assistant and I’m told no. Instead, I’m walked out of the building by a security guard.”