Overview

• OpenAI’s workforce grew from about 1,000 to 3,000 employees over a year, overwhelming existing processes and team structures.
• Engineers rely almost entirely on Slack for coordination, with some reporting they received as few as ten emails across a 14-month period.
• A bias-to-action approach lets staff launch projects independently, resulting in overlapping work and multiple duplicate code libraries.
• The seven-week sprint to build and release Codex involved nightly work past 11 p.m. and weekend hours, contributing to reports of burnout.
• French-Owen’s revelations have intensified calls for change, though OpenAI has not announced any formal restructuring in response.