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Meta employees are voicing frustration over the company's latest round of “performance based” layoffs on public forums.
The job cuts, which began this week, affected approximately 3,600 workers-around 5% of Meta’s workforce- according to an internal memo from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Despite Meta’s assertion that the layoffs targeted low performers, many affected employees are disputing his claim.
Fortune reports that several have taken to social media to defend their work history, arguing that they were unfairly labeled as underperformers despite consistently meeting or exceeding expectations.
“The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they’re cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs,” one employee anonymously told Business Insider.
“People need to know we’re not underperformers.”
Unjust layoffs and leave violations
On Blind, an anonymous platform for tech employees, several Meta workers accused the company of misusing performance evaluations to justify the layoffs. Some allege that they were let go while on approved parental or medical leave.
“[I] consistently exceeded expectations multiple years, had a baby in 2024, got laid off,” wrote one former employee.
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Another individual who was on maternity leave for six months stated they had “no history of below average performance” and are now seeking legal advice.
Employees also expressed anger over the treatment of long-serving staff members. One noted that workers with nearly a decade of experience were dismissed, adding: “Seems it was more about money than performance.”
Another wrote, “Be careful about joining this company. Zuck doesn’t care about his employees. Only the company.”
Amid the backlash, some workers characterized Meta as the “cruelest tech company out there.”
Shifting dynamics in tech
The controversy at Meta is part of a broader shift in Silicon Valley’s corporate culture.
After hundreds of thousands of layoffs, tech employees are facing job insecurity, reduced workplace flexibility, and declining support for DEI initiatives.
Many attribute the changes to growing pressures on tech giants to correct post-pandemic over-hiring, cut costs and boost profitability.
Meta’s cultural transformation has been particularly noticeable. Once associated with Sheryl Sandberg’s “lean in” philosophy, the company has now taken a different direction.
In an interview with right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg argued for more “masculine energy” in corporate environments, signaling a shift away from the inclusive workplace ethos previously promoted at Meta.
The layoffs have also raised questions about managerial practices at Meta. One Microsoft employee shared on Blind that a friend at Meta was told to “find someone” to lay off, even if everyone on the team was performing well.
Another employee suggested that the cuts were designed to reverse the power dynamics that favored workers during the tech boom of 2021–2022, writing: “Execs were terrified of the power workers had [at] that time… Best way to stop that is put the fear of God back in the workers.”
