OpenAI employees can bypass management layers by emailing friction@openai.com to flag internal bottlenecks or pace-slowing issues, with reviews by senior leadership and possible direct involvement from CEO Sam Altman or President Greg Brockman, according to Fortune. A former employee said the system lets staff take concerns straight to the top, adding, “Literally anybody can complain about big company bulls**t directly to Sam and they can act on it.” The process may grow more useful as OpenAI is expected to have more than 8,000 employees by the end of the year across the US and other countries. The email existed for some time but became more organised after Fidji Simo joined as chief executive of Applications in autumn 2025; she conducted a three-month “listening tour” before helping streamline the system and now serves as a part-time advisor. Former employees said the channel drove changes including a pilot programme prioritising parking for staff with longer commutes and efforts to build a more scalable system for granting API credits. However, a former team leader said they received “dozens” of friction emails and found the process disruptive, stating, “to teams like mine that are constantly underwater, under-resourced, and over-leveraged, it's the single most disruptive thing you could do.” OpenAI is not alone in this model; Amazon reportedly used a similar system under founder Jeff Bezos, known as a “Jeff B escalation.”