[Facebook and Twitter] aren’t the real problems in the office. The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms, the Managers and the Meetings.

Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals (later Basecamp), is known for arguing that modern offices undermine “real work” through constant interruptions and performative busyness. This line reflects his broader critique—popularized in his writing and talks around the early 2010s—that companies often blame distractions like social media when the bigger productivity drains are internal: layers of management and a culture of frequent meetings. Fried’s “M&Ms” framing is a rhetorical device he uses to redirect attention from individual self-control to organizational design, emphasizing that the structure of the workplace often creates the very inefficiency it complains about.

The quote argues that workplace productivity problems are usually systemic rather than personal. By dismissing Facebook and Twitter as scapegoats, Fried suggests that the deeper issue is how offices are run: managers who generate interruptions, and meetings that fragment attention and replace making with talking. Calling them “M&Ms” is both memorable and pointed—it implies these are the everyday, seemingly normal habits that quietly consume time. The significance is a shift in responsibility: instead of policing employees’ minor distractions, organizations should reduce unnecessary coordination overhead and protect uninterrupted time for focused work.