Ex-OpenAI adviser: Anthropic staff actually take vacations, OpenAI rarely does

On August 23, former senior OpenAI adviser Miles Brundage posted that Anthropic employees actually take vacations, which is rare at OpenAI. He stressed this is not because OpenAI is racing harder—in fact Anthropic has accelerated more in recent years—but a pure corporate culture difference rooted in differing attitudes toward grindset.

Confirmed

• The observation comes from Miles Brundage's original post.
• Multiple accounts (@tszzl, @jxnlco, @robseamans, @JacquesThibs) relayed the same observation with no new facts.

Why it matters

• Coming from a former OpenAI insider, the observation offers a concrete window into the internal work-culture differences between two leading AI labs.
• It decouples vacation culture from company pace: the faster-accelerating Anthropic takes more vacations, suggesting high output and sustainable work practices can coexist—relevant to industry debates over grind culture.

2026-08-23 ~ 2026-08-23 · 6 related posts

• [source] Miles Brundage: Anthropic employees actually take vacation unlike OpenAI — Miles_Brundage · 2026-08-23

5 near-duplicate retellings: Miles_Brundage · JacquesThibs · robseamans · jxnlco · tszzl