There was a time when having a tech job meant one was settled for life. The money, the time, the comfort, the luxury, and the status all came with an offer letter from the big tech companies. However, with the AI boom, the industry that once attracted millions is now laying off thousands throughout the year.
The Meta Layoff
On May 20, 2026, Meta is expected to lay off 8,000 employees, roughly 10% of its global workforce, with about 500 cuts in the Bay Area. This adds to the 100,000 tech workers laid off since January. Every employee at Mark Zuckerberg's company is awaiting a 7 am email that will reveal their future. A longtime Meta employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Standard: "If you're on a work machine, you are probably being surveilled. But the framing that we are using this to train AI to do everyone's job and the unapologetic approach of 'we're training your replacement, and we're not paying you more for it' is just another signal of how little Meta cares about the humans it employs."
Gone is the time when being laid off meant an awkward meeting with HR and your manager. At Meta, there is never an official internal list of who is being laid off. People find out by visiting their internal work profile and seeing if it says "deactivated." With the looming layoff date, the employee shared how they checked their email every morning to know if they still have a job. "I feel torn. Working here is not easy. From the outside, there's massive negative sentiment, and there's certainly something there. But the pain of working here is not very well understood," they said.
With everyone on edge, people are using humor to cope. "There's a lot of doomsday joking going around. Very openly in chat groups that include directors and even VPs, people are posting memes about getting laid off, dancing skeletons, these kinds of things," they said. However, the leadership's avoidance of addressing the situation, lack of compassion, and expectation to take layoffs as "adults" is impacting employee morale, trust, and productivity.
The Cost of Meta
The employee highlighted that things are more complicated than they seem. With the current situation in tech, employees are unsure how long it will take to find a new job. While six months was enough earlier, now it could mean a year or more. "My partner is home with our kids, so I'm currently the breadwinner, and it's pretty intimidating to think that might disappear," they said.
On a personal level, layoffs take a toll on more than finances. They impact self-confidence, mental health, and entire life. "I tend to cry in the shower," shared the employee, adding that they still put on a brave face in the office. "But when I'm at home, if I have breaks where I might normally have had a lovely lunch in the sun, I definitely spend a good amount of that time despondent somewhere in my house."
They expressed dissatisfaction with leadership and anger at having to remain productive in such a situation. Larger life decisions have been put on hold. The employee has delayed moving or having another child until after May 20. With rumors of more layoffs, all they can do is keep their head down and work, putting stress-free living on a back burner. As a result, more people are taking mental health leaves, which have become "reasonably common at Meta."
A Message to the Future of Meta
When asked what people should understand about working at Meta, the employee said they wanted people to know the "pain" of working there. "The tradeoffs. A moment like this, where not only is some of the work maybe not great for society, but also we're not being treated like humans, and as a manager, not really being allowed to treat my people that much like humans. The pay is good. It's hard to have a clear feeling about anything else," they said. "Even if we haven't lost our jobs to AI yet, we're being commoditised in advance."
Will they stay at Meta if not laid off? With conditions being "pretty terrible," the employee said they want to look for another role while still employed. "It is too distracting and impossible to plan my own life. Yeah ... can't do it," they shared.
