Why Meta’s CTO Only Feels Stressed Out 5 Times a Year

Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, doesn’t feel stressed on a daily basis. In fact, stress is a relatively rare occurrence in his professional life. 

The CTO plays a key leadership role at Meta, a company known for maintaining rigorous performance standards and regularly trimming underperforming staff. One unit he leads, Reality Labs, has also faced its share of challenges, including major product pullbacks and rounds of layoffs. 

Bosworth was recently asked, “How do you deal with work stress?” in an ask-me-anything he hosted on his Instagram.

“I don’t feel stressed out that often,” he responded on his Instagram. “It happens to me four or five times a year.”

Bosworth boiled his stress down to a single source: feeling constantly busy. When his schedule gets too packed, he worries that he won’t have enough time for the “important work,” which triggers stress. 

“When I start to experience the stress, that’s a useful signal for me,” he said on Instagram. “What is the important work that, if you dedicated the time to it, you would be okay? And, how do we reprioritize the urgent stuff that’s being noisy?”

Bosworth handles stress by exercising, deep breathing and spending time with his family. He also likes to talk through his stress with his loved ones, especially his wife, he said. 

How other executives handle stress

Adam Markowitz, a former NASA aerospace engineer who runs the $100 million compliance startup Drata, told Entrepreneur in December that he manages stress through daily morning exercise and a 37-degree cold plunge. 

“It’s a ritual I rely on because, for me, doing something difficult and uncomfortable before sunrise sustains discipline,” Markowitz said. “And when you push yourself to an extreme physically and mentally first thing in the morning, it tends to make the rest of the day feel a bit easier by comparison.”

Emma Grede, CEO and co-founder of the denim company Good American and a founding partner of Skims (a $4 billion shapewear brand), sticks to a highly regimented schedule to maximize the time she spends with her family and minimize stress. The serial entrepreneur, worth a reported $390 million, is a mother of four, with an 11-year-old, an 8-year-old, and 3-year-old twins.

“I run my house like a military operation,” Grede told Entrepreneur last year. “It’s important for me to bring my family together, even for 30 minutes. Touching base and looking at each other is important.”

She asks that everyone be at the breakfast table by 7:40 a.m. for a half hour of family time before school starts. She also dedicates evenings to her family, coming home and having dinner with her husband and kids. However, she will also answer work emails at 10 p.m. if she has to. 

“I do whatever I have to do to get through the day,” she said. 

Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, doesn’t feel stressed on a daily basis. In fact, stress is a relatively rare occurrence in his professional life. 

The CTO plays a key leadership role at Meta, a company known for maintaining rigorous performance standards and regularly trimming underperforming staff. One unit he leads, Reality Labs, has also faced its share of challenges, including major product pullbacks and rounds of layoffs. 

Bosworth was recently asked, “How do you deal with work stress?” in an ask-me-anything he hosted on his Instagram.