Another tech billionaire is in the firing line, and while it's often Elon Musk facing scandalous headlines, it's Meta's Mark Zuckerberg who's currently under siege from a barrage of negative press. Meta employees aren't sharing the love on Valentine's Day, and after a series of sweeping cuts gutted numerous departments on February 11, they're taking to the internet to share their experiences of working for the social media Goliath.
After Zuckerberg warned it would be a 'tough' 2025, Meta started making a series of 'performance-based' layoffs. 3,600 staff were reportedly shown the door, with many saying they were confused about being let go despite their seemingly glowing performance records.
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In a previous memo, Zuckerberg reportedly said: "We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year. But now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle."
One anonymous former Meta employee told Business Insider: "The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they’re cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs,” "People need to know we’re not underperformers."
Namely, there are concerns that while hirers would normally be impressed with seeing Meta on someone's CV, those who apply for jobs in the immediate aftermath of these layoffs will be tarred with the brush that they're 'low performers'.
Posting on LinkedIn, former Meta worker Kaila Curry says she regularly asked for feedback and was never placed on a performance review. Defending herself, Curry wrote: "Perhaps I became too vocal when our shift to young adult (YA) content involved removing safeguards that protected LGBTQ+ users.
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"I spoke up because I didn’t want to contribute to a platform that could increase suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth. Maybe I “lacked masculine energy” (to quote Mark Zuckerberg himself). Who knows?"
This seems to be just the tip of the iceberg, with Fortune pointing us toward the Blind app for verified employees in the tech industry.
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There are a series of damning complaints, including one laid-off member of staff replying to a thread titled, "Will Meta get sued?" The former employee claims they were recently on maternity leave and is currently seeking legal advice as they explained: "I was laid off today and will be looking for employment counsel. I had no history of below average performance and was on mat leave for 6 months this year."
Taking things one step further, someone else concluded: "Meta is now the cruelest tech company out there."
One slightly more positive Redditor said that companies often have a short memory for who is laid off due to 'low performance', saying: "I don’t think that’s gonna happen honestly. People have short memories and no one is sitting and keeping track of who got laid off/ when etc. However, how’s everyone feeling? It’s a sad bad day."
Meta has been hit with plenty of backlash after it seemingly rolled back its guidelines on hate speech and spoke out on DEI initiatives.
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Zuckerberg dodged the question about whether more layoffs would be on the way thanks to an AI-powered future, but if these cuts are anything to go by, there are increasing fears that more are on the way.
UNILAD Tech has reached out to Meta but hasn't heard back at the time of writing.